Sojourn of Exiles
by SpartAl412
Summary: Common it is when dark times come, that it is up to the likes of heroes who are just, wise and courageous to bring salvation. Yet there are also evils which can only be defeated by those hard of heart and resilient of mind. In such times as these when dark days are coming, that the galaxy will need both kinds of heroes for only united can they hope to see the new dawn.
1. Chapter 1

_2182 CE: Somewhere in the Terminus Systems…_

'Worst pilgrimage ever' slurred Sarakshi nar Rayya to herself as the side her helmeted head rested upon the surface of a circular table. A half-empty bottle of purified Turian Brandy lay next to her with a crumpled emergency induction port sticking out from the open neck. Equipped with a suit of blue, white and black Explorer II Armor which was stained with dirt grime and mismatched patches of jury-rigged repairs here and there, it was a miracle that her life support was even working.

Dull reddish lights filled the bar along with a deep rhythmic song which evoked a sense of aggression, a fitting combination for the surly assortments of different sentients species which liked to gather here. On one side, Krogan mercenaries in blood red armor along with vicious Vorcha cheered around a pit as a bloody game of chance involving a starving Varren and crippled Pyjaks was ongoing. Nearby, a band of Batarian pirates celebrated a successful hit, they laughed and boasted of the kills they made and the number of prisoners they had captured, no doubt the poor _bosh'tets_ would be sold to the nearest slave market bound for some mining colony.

Only a few months had passed since Sarakshi had first left the Migrant Fleet, like many young Quarians her age, she had undertaken the Pilgrimage. It had been exciting at first, travelling the galaxy and meeting people from other alien races, yet now, well, she wished that she was a few years younger. After that incident with the Salarian and the Volus brokers who turned out to be nothing but a pair of con artists, Sarakshi was left penniless, stranded on a cess-pit of a planet called Isfet and up to her neck in debt which ran in the six digits.

"Worst pilgrimage ever" she repeated. The idea of cutting her losses, making a run for it and hiding somewhere on the other end of the galaxy had crossed the young Quarian's mind but she knew that if she did, those she owed credits to would put a price on her head and send bounty hunters after her. And if it were anything like in the vids, then some other Quarian on their Pilgrimage would probably end up paying for it.

Wallowing in her misery, she sat there for Ancestors knows how long and slowly emptying that bottle of Turian Brandy. Eventually after some time, she heard a sudden beeping sound from her Cipher III Omni-Tool and the Quarian lifted up her head to look at it. An incoming call she saw, probably one of those damned credit collectors working for some debtor she owed.

Muttering a curse, she took the call, knowing rather well that if it was one of her debtors then either ignoring or letting them wait tended to add to the interest of her debt.

'Hello? Sarakshi?' called a familiar, feminine voice with a professional tone which was a great relief to the Quarian to hear.

'Hey Vayl, what's up?' blearily greeted the Quarian.

'Just got a job, thought you might be interested in joining' replied the fellow mercenary.

'Not like I got anything else to do, what are the details?' asked Sarakshi.

'I will send you the coordinates, meet the employer' answered Vayl and after a few moments, information began being streamed into the Sarakshi's Omni-Tools.

'Right, thanks Vayl, see you around' finished Sarakshi and the call ended. Time to repay that debt, bitterly thought Sarakshi who tried to take another sip and she cursed, forgetting that it was already empty.

* * *

 _010.M42: Somewhere in The Ghoul Stars, Ultima Segmentum…_

The Taurox APC shook as it passed over some rough terrain, its quad tracks allowed it to easily navigate across the rocky grounds of the nameless world. Within the troop compartment of the transport, a squad of soldiers equipped with some of the more recent designs of wargear, patiently awaited to be brought to their destination. Gauntleted hands held on to either Ryza Pattern Hotshot Lasguns which sported power cables attached to back mounted packs or the heavier Hotshot Volley Guns and some carried even deadlier, more potent armaments.

Protected by full suits of red painted carapace armor worn over viridian fatigues, each member of the squad showed not an inch of flesh, except for their squad leader who instead of wearing a helmet, simply wore a green beret over his head for like many soldiers of the Imperium, it was not only a sign of courage and seniority but it also helped maintain cohesion among a squad. Tempestor Prime Karden Barrick, of the 2nd Saranan Wardogs and a member of His Glorious Majesty's Militarum Tempestus, quietly prayed that some stupid xenos try to frakk with them. His fingers tapped upon the hilt of a sheathed Power Sword which came in the form of a sabre and his plasma pistol remained inactive within its holster.

It had been twelve hours since the drop, when their ships had arrived in orbit above this barren world and they had quickly learned that they were not alone. A fleet of warp-damned heretics had arrived ahead of them along with an entire horde of greenskins and other things which sought to lay claim to the planet. He had no idea what they were there for but it was not his place to question orders, only to follow them.

All he knew was that Segmentum Command wanted this planet and they even managed to get a couple Astartes Companies to join in along with Sororitas Preceptories, several Regiments of Astra Militarum and even Cohorts of the Skitarii. Whatever was the reason, they certainly made the right choice because if anyone needed real soldiers to win a war then they needed to look no further than the Tempestus Scions. He'd probably feel bad for aliens and heretics… then again maybe not because they were nothing more than filthy things in need of purging.

Currently, Karden's squad had been assigned to investigate Camp 32, an Astra Miltarum outpost which had not reported anything within the last two hours and all attempts to hail the camp was met with silence. A lot could have happened to Camp 32, equipment failure was a possibility but in the sergeant's experience, they were probably all dead because Emperor knows how often soldiers like him are sent to find out what's what and discovering nothing but corpses. His men knew it as well and they kept themselves ready and alert for any possible dangers.

'What's the ETA to the camp?' questioned Corporal Fuller who sat near the hatch leading to the driver's section, the question directed to said driver.

'Twenty minutes' replied private Belkar, their squad's Operator and thus in charge of driving the transports. 'We might get there fas-' Belkar's words were suddenly cut short as a loud impact struck against the front of the Taurox, causing it to shake while a loud screech of metal simultaneously followed.

'Emperor's Blood, what the frakk was that!?' shouted Fuller as a dim red light began to fill the interior of the troop compartment.

'Oh hell, the engine's been shot!' announced Belkar.

'Can you fix it?' asked Karden who quickly got up to his feet and he stood at the centre of the aisle while maintaining a calm voice and a commanding presence.

'I have to see the damage and-' replied Belkar before a bright lance of energy suddenly punched a hole through the windshield, instantly killing the driver, two men behind him and blowing off the legs of another Scion. Blood splattered across the troop compartment, shocking them for a moment before their discipline and training instantly kicked in.

'BAIL OUT!' roared Sergeant Karden who turned his head to face the rear hatch of the vehicle and one of the other Scions quickly punched the runes on the side panel which unlocked the back entrance. In mere seconds, they kicked open the twin semi-circular doors and the squad of Scions filed out. They could have also taken the side doors but considering that the shot had come from the front, they could have been dangerously exposed to whatever it was that shot them.

Karden allowed his men to go first before leaping out himself and when he did, he saw once more, the desolation of this world. An endless horizon of blackened, rocky ground stretched out as far as the eye could see and the sky itself was one of the gloomiest he had ever seen. By all rights, the planet should be a Dead World, yet according to the Mechanicus, the atmosphere was safe to breath for normal human beings. The smell of freshly spilled blood now mixed with the stale air of the planet as the boots of the Scions kicked up thin clouds of black dust.

Taking cover at the back of the vehicle, Karden cursed after a quick survey for they were stuck in open ground with little to no cover to use, aside from the Taurox and they had no visual contact of the enemy.

'The hell just shot us?' hissed private Lorma whose back was to the right rear tread of the Taurox.

'Energy weapon I think, powerful, armor piercing' quietly replied Karden who kept low with some of the other Scions.

'Hey Razz, see anything?' asked Private Tehrn towards another Scion who had taken position opposite of Lorma.

'Damned if I know' replied Private Raphael Zelinz (or Razz) who gently leaned his head out to get a better look and then there was a sudden sound, like that of glass shattering as his head violently jerked back. Razz landed on his back, the left lens of his respirator mask shattered, the eye and meat behind it left a gristly ruin.

'Frakk! sniper!' hissed Karden before another bright lance of energy shot out but this time, it travelled beneath the wide space bellow the Taurox and reducing the legs of Fuller and another man to gristly stumps. 'We can't stay here, fall back!' ordered Karden who immediately saw that it was now just him, Lorma and a third Scion named Helmar.

His men obeyed him and they began to sprint back the way they had come in a zigzagging pattern. It was quite clear that their attackers had something which could easily punch through the hull of a Taurox and they had a sniper who was either equipped with a silenced solid projectile rifle or a long-las with a Whisperbolt modification. In their current situation, they were too exposed, even with the transport for cover and their Hotshots were only good for short to medium range engagements, if they even spotted their attackers.

A bright blue-white laser bolt suddenly lanced into the back of Lorma's neck, killing him instantly while a larger energy lance punched a bloody hole through the chest of Helmar. Sergeant Karden Barrick, a veteran of ten campaigns, a man who had loyally been to hell and back, serving the God Emperor's armies, made to five more steps before a laser bolt struck him at the back of the head. The mere flesh, bone and the beret which he wore proved an even less effective defense against the high powered laser bolts from his killer.

* * *

'Fine shooting' commended Ellarian Anathir towards his companion as the last of the _Mon'keigh_ fell.

'You really should switch to something more powerful' playfully replied the husky, feminine voice of his companion over the short range communications frequency which they used.

'And lose the element of surprise? I think not' he replied with a grin beneath his helmet as he placed the strap of his rifle upon his right shoulder.

Dressed in the common accouterments associated with the Rangers, Ellarian of Craftworld Valseris and now of the Crescent Wings Corsairs became an invisible ghost among the black wastes of this desolate world. Concealed by his Cameleoline cloak and protected by a breastplate and helmet of wraithbone along with mesh bracers for his wrists, he moved without a sound and down the hill towards his companion.

'Control, we took down an Imperial armored transport carrying infantry troops' Ellarian's companion spoke over the wider communications channel used by their warband.

'Leave no survivors and start gathering' replied the voice on the other side.

'Copy that, proceeding' his companion dutifully answered in a cool manner before turning towards him and he saw the twin glowing lights from her helmet.

While also wearing a Cameleoline cloak, it was quite obvious for one to see the very different design of wargear which his companion wore. Standing up to the base of his chest, Sheia or more formally as Shas'nel T'au Sheia, shouldered her Rail Rifle for easier carrying. Equipped with a light suit of Recon Armor commonly used by the Tau scouts known as Pathfinders, Sheia's wargear proudly bore the red paint and the insignia of the dissident alien faction known as the Farsight Enclave.

'Come on, let's make sure those _Gue'la_ are dead' she then said while drawing a Pulse Pistol.

'We should make it fast for I am sure the others will have need of us soon' Nodded Ellarian as he drew his own Shuriken Pistol.

'At least they don't make us do everything, right?' said Sheia in an amused tone and the Ranger softly laughed before the two of them vanished into the landscape.

* * *

 _2182 CE_

In comparison to the seedy dives which Sarakshi often visited, the Elysium was certainly cleaner in appearance, yet it was just as much a den filled with scum and villains. Instead of groups like the Blood Pack or the assorted bands of pirates and local gangs which often brawled among one another, the Elysium was filled with more "professional" acting mercenaries such as the Eclipse, the Blue Suns and other groups who were just as likely to shoot you dead instead of a knife to the gut. Feeling a bit woozy from the stimulants she had taken to flush out the alcohol from her system, the Quarian was somewhat glad for the protective screen over her face which also concealed her expressions so at least, she did not have to worry about letting others see how sick she felt.

The establishment itself was brightly lit and spacious, the music more energetic, the sort which one would have an easier time dancing, if they were completely sober, a state which Sarakshi was most definitely not in. She stood near the entrance of the building, the eyes of many patrons turned towards the Quarian, eyes seizing her up for a moment before returning to their businesses. Taking a quick look around the place, she tried to find this new employer of whom Vayl had sent her information about.

Spotting the one she sought by a booth in the far corner of the establishment, she immediately began making her way to the prospective employer. The Quarian passed by a group of scantily clad Asari who shook their hips and showed off their bodies to other customers who, if they were smart, would best avoid any touching if they wanted to keep their skins attached to their bones. Keeping a respectful distance from the other mercenaries, she finally came face to face with the employer.

Dressed in a dark grey and black jumpsuit, an older looking Asari with deep blue skin worriedly looked about before her eyes settled on the Quarian. The Asari clearly looked like she was not used to being in these sorts of places and Sarakshi could not really blame her for if it were up to the Quarian herself, she would be light years away from the Terminus Systems.

'You must be the other mercenary' quietly said the Asari with a nod and gestured to the section of the booth opposite to her and offering Sarakshi a seat.

'I am, so what's the job?' asked the Quarian who did her best in trying to adopt a more professional demeanor.

'My name Eriynia and there is… was something of mine that had been stolen' spoke the Asari a bit hesitantly. 'It is important that I get it back and I am willing to pay a great sum of credits to have it not only brought back but also for your discretion in the matter.'

'I see, but before I agree on anything' said Sarakshi while raising one hand. 'I need information on who is it we are going up against and more importantly, exactly how much is the pay'.

'The payment upon completion will be fifty thousand credits' replied Eriynia and Sarakshi's eyes widened in surprise.

' _Keelah_! that is a lot' blurted the Quarian for with that much, she could pay off a few of her debtors and get them off of her back.

'Indeed but as to the identities of the thieves well, that is going to take a bit of time to explain' continued the Asari.

'I have time' shrugged Sarakshi who genuinely felt curious about this mission.

'All right then' said the Eriynia with a nod. 'It all started years ago on Piares…'

* * *

 _010.M42_

With cold and merciless precision Sheia put a pulse round into the head of a fallen _Mon'keigh_ and splattering its brain across the interior of the primitive tracked transport vehicle. Ellarian was bent over the corpse of a dead human, the one he had shot the eye of and he rolled the body over before carefully removing the power pack which connected to an armor piercing laser rifle. Such weapons had its uses for their warband, not that he needed it himself of course but some of the others certainly did.

Near the Ranger and behind the transport, a Webway beacon finished warping in a familiar archway which sparked with a shimmering disc of light. From the Webway Gate, an unarmed grav-platform arrived and he began to load it with the equipment taken from the dead Imperials. After several minutes of scrounging about, both Sheia and himself had finished loading the platform with guns, ammunition, grenades, body armor and supplies.

'We should head back' announced the Ranger and Tau quietly complied before the two turned towards the shimmering gate with the grav-platform following them into its twisting paths of the Webway. Guiding his companion as he often did, they soon arrived back in the material universe, at the encampment of their warband.

Located upon a plateau with the paths leading up to it protected by Support Platforms, the encampment was for the most part, hidden by Shroud Generators and Holo-Emitters. Very few souls could be found for most were out on the field, engaging the armies which sought to lay claim to this world.

'It seems we have arrived early' commented Sheia whose helmeted head moved about in observation.

'We should drop these off before heading back out' added the Ranger and the two of them moved towards the center of the camp where a Webway Assembly stood. Near the structure which served as the heart of the Webway network on the planet, a tent of synthetic fabrics had been pitched up and used as depot for re-supplying the squadrons of corsairs. Inside the tent's interiors, a group of Jokaero weapon-smiths made repairs or modifications to captured weapons, armor and other pieces of wargear.

Unlike most Corsair warbands, the Crescent Wings made it a regular to habit employ aliens from other species, mercenaries and pirates being the most preferable. Most were simply cannon fodder and meat shields for the Eldar pirates but some had certain skills or attributes which could prove very useful under the right circumstances. Those of course who could prove themselves very useful would find working for the Crescent Wings to be a very, very profitable venture.

A band of Kroot mercenaries armed with a mixture of modified Tau and Ork guns passed by Ellarian, Sheia and their haul. One of the Jokaero which had been busily working on a makeshift table with a human plasma gun upon it, began making a series of simian noises which passed for speech among their species and it pointed toward the ground next to it. Nodding towards the orange furred alien, the Ranger sent a mental command to the grav-platform's animus and it hovered towards the tent.

'So what next?' asked Sheia. 'Reload or Re-arm?'

'Let us first see if anyone needs help with anything' replied Ellarian who immediately switched communications channel. There was a great buzz of activity as the different groups of their warband were engaged in their own battles, most were coordinating their assaults, using various hit and run tactics and even luring different enemy forces together. In one zone, a squadron of Hornets had struck an armored column of Chaos forces and were now pulling back, in another, a sniper teams were picking off Imperial Guardsmen engaged in combat with Orks.

'Oh here is one' said Sheia who quickly transmitted the frequency channel to Ellarian.

'-st found one of the entrances leading into the necropolis, looks like we have Imperials inside, probably Necrons too' called the voice of a human female.

'Secure the entrance and set charges' came a reply in Imperial Gothic, the voice clearly belonged to a male Eldar.

'Right I am sending our coordinates now, if anyone else is hearing this, we can use some help' finished the human female.

'Shall we?' asked Ellarian with another smile beneath his helmet.

'Gladly' nodded Sheia and the two of them turned back to Jokaero tent.

* * *

 _2182 CE_

'And that is what happened' finished Eriynia while setting down a now emptied glass.

'Well that's rather... unusual' replied Sarakshi who took in all that the Asari had told her.

'I admit that it may be a bit far-fetched' sighed Eriynia who then looked back up with a determined look in her eye. 'But I can assure you that everything that I have said is true'.

It seemed that the Asari who sat opposite of Sarakshi was a Matriarch among her species, a powerful biotic as well as something of an expert in the study of ancient alien civilizations such as the Protheans. For many years now, Eriynia had been studying some extinct alien race which supposedly predated even the Protheans themselves and that they achieved great feats of scientific achievements which far surpassed anything known to modern scientists. Yet like the Protheans, these other ancients had just disappeared and all that was left of their civilization were long dead ruins.

According to Eriynia, her studies of these ancients had taken the Matriarch from Council Space to the Attican Traverse and then to the Terminus Systems where she eventually made contact with a rather wealthy patron who claimed to have heard of her research. After setting up a meeting on the space station Omega and traveling there, Eriynia had met the Batarian named Norak who also claimed to be studying ancient civilizations and it seemed that both he and the Matriarch shared interests with the same lost species. What happened after was a rather lengthy story about them working together over a number of years to uncover the mystery of the ancients.

Eventually, they were finally able to find what both of them believed was the home-world of that long dead civilization, at the north eastern edges of the galaxy. They had mounted an expedition towards the desolate planet, accompanied by a large group of mercenaries hired as protection and after many months they had found what they sought. An ancient city, a necropolis that had once been the heart of a mighty empire which ruled vast swathes of the entire galaxy.

The expedition had later been able to make their way to some ancient temple, dedicated to what they believed was a goddess, an empress to a great pantheon of deities worshipped by the ancients. After entering the temple, they would later find something of great value, a "The Key" which Eriynia had called. Soon after finding this "Key" Norak had quickly betrayed Eriynia and ordered his mercenaries to kill the Matriarch who barely managed to escape.

Since then, the Asari Matriarch had been trying to find some way back and it seemed that hiring her own mercenaries was the only way to get back this so called "Key".

'Did you tell the same story to Vayl?' asked the Quarian.

'No' answered the Asari. 'Your associate simply asked for some basic details such as who is the target, what plant, and how much will the payment be and that is it.'

'Sure sounds like Vayl' said Sarakshi for the other mercenary was one of those types who can easily get a job done with very few to no questions asked.

'So will you do it?' asked the Asari Matriarch with a tinge of desperation in her voice.

'Well I can't say I completely believe this story' shrugged Sarakshi. 'The money is simply too good to pass up, so yes I accept.'

'Thank the Goddess' breathed Eryinia with a relieved sigh. 'Your friend has told me that she will be forwarding the job to others of whom she can recommend it to.'

'Wait' quickly interrupted Saraskhi. 'If there are more of us being hired, are we going to split the money?'

'Rest assured that you will be paid in the amount which I have earlier promised, first an advance of ten percent and the rest after the job' replied Eriynia.

'Oh, well that is fine then' continued the Quarian who then eagerly asked. 'So when are we leaving?'

'As soon as your friend can put together a full team' answered the Matriarch.

'I guess I will take my leave then' said Sarakshi with a nod before standing up. 'I will give you my contact details, call me when you are ready to leave'.

As the Quarian was about to leave, she felt a firm grip upon her right wrist and she glanced back to see the Asari looking at her.

'Thank you for accepting' said the Matriarch with a look of genuine gratitude which surprised Sarakshi.

'Err your welcome… I guess' replied Sarakshi rather awkwardly as she made her way passed the crowd and back into the mean streets of Isfet.

Like with any other mission, the Quarian mercenary needed the time to get ready. She would need guns, ammunitions, armor, modifications, upgrades, med-gel and all sorts of things which did not come cheap. It was good thing that there was an advanced payment because the last thing which Sarakshi needed was to dig herself even deeper.

* * *

 _010.M42_

Stepping out once more from a shimmering disc of light, back into real space, Ellarian and Sheia were unsurprisingly, first greeted by several guns pointed towards them. A collection of various alien mercenaries were gathered at the cavernous entrance of a black stone archway, a series of smooth dark stone pillars lined the way leading towards the entrance.

'I would appreciate it if you would all be so kind as to put your weapons away' announced Ellarian without a shred of fear in his voice and the fellow pirates hesitantly did as he said.

'Just the two of you?' asked one of the other pirates, a human male wearing a fully enclosed suit of carapace armour which also provided the necessary protection needed for going out into the void of space.

'Yes, just us, now what is the situation' sternly added Sheia.

'It's like this' said the human as he lowered his gun and his companions did likewise. 'We were trailing a convoy of Rhinos you see, reckoned that they might be them Sister of Battle or some Space Marines, not that we are worried about the latter mind you' he said before glancing towards a nearby group of parked light human vehicle which sported six wheels and heavy gun turrets mounted at the back.

Nodding to the human, Ellarian allowed him to continue.

'So anyways' says the man. 'We see the blokes park here and we was making sure to keep an eye on em with magnocs, then comes the damnedest thing though.'

'The suspense is killing me' sarcastically commented Sheia.

'There were a couple of Space Marines for sure' continued the human. 'Big bastards in black armor but there were also a whole lot of Storm Troopers with em, even damned Judges'.

'Black armored Space Marines, accompanied by normal _Mon'keigh_?' asked Ellarian who looked a bit uncomfortably towards Sheia who was also looking towards him.

'And I assume that your group attacked afterwards?' Sheia then said.

'Aye we did' nodded the human pirate. 'We waited a couple of minutes before all the Marines went in and then we revved up our engines and went all out guns blazing, the Venators there knocked out them Rhinos right and proper before they could shoot back at us. Was easy after to corner em and gun em down with the Heavy Stubbers and Bolters.'

'Did they have any common symbols on them?' questioned Sheia who reached for one of the pouches attached to her belt and she began to search through it.

'What? you mean like an Aquila?' queried the human with some confusion.

'No I mean something like this' answered Sheia who then removed a from her pouch, a slender gilded piece of metal shaped in the form of a column or more specifically, an I.

'Aye that's it!' said the pirate and both Ellarian and Sheia gave another look to one another and the human pirate suddenly had stark a look of realization.

'Sufficed to say human, it is far, far worse' replied Ellarian.

'Oh frakk' muttered the human before a sudden explosion ripped across the grounds in front of the archway. Many of the light vehicles exploded and from the darkness of the tunnels, bolter rounds sailed forth and finding their marks among the Corsairs, the man they had just been talking to had his head explode in a messy shower.

'Isha's Tears!' cursed Ellarian who leaped to the side for cover and glad that he had his Cameleoline Cloak to help him blend in with his surroundings. Using his natural fleet-footed speed, he rushed to the nearest of pillars which provided him a good deal of cover from the deadly volley.

'Ellarian! over there!' shouted Sheia and he immediately heard the loud, electric crack of her Rail Rifle being discharged. Briefly, he saw the body of a lightly armored human in black, a Scout Marine light up before the Rail shot smashed into his chest and knocking him off of his feet.

Bolter shells then began to strike the ground where Sheia had been for the Tau female was already on the move towards the pillars and she fired back towards the tunnel entrance. Muttering a curse, the Ranger brought out his long rifle and he began to calibrate it for maximum damage against heavily armored targets. Activating the Pan-Spectral Sight of his rifle, he switched its vision to psychic mode before leaning out from his position.

He saw the spirit auras of three Space Marines, all looked to be armed with heavy weapons which continued to rapidly fire at them. Bolter and Autocannon shells continued to fly, killing several of those pirates who were too slow to move out of the way. Holding his breath and whispering a prayer to the Old Gods, Ellarian took aim at one Astartes armed with a Heavy Bolter and the Ranger took the shot.

The Space Marine immediately fell as the laser bolt struck the right eye lens of his helmet and another was instantly killed by a Rail shot which obliterated his helmeted head. The last of the Marines continued to rain fire upon them and Ellarian was force to quickly get back into cover but as soon as he took shelter, the volley stopped. Curious at this, the Ranger cautiously tried to take a peek from his position and in the darkness beyond the archway, he saw a familiar, emerald green glow.

'Lord of murder…' hissed Ellarian as a number of green glowing, metallic skeletal being emerged with weapons held at the ready, the form of the Space Marine who had been shooting at them now remained still and the robotic feet of Necrons silently marched towards them.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Like most of my crossover stories, this one is based on characters from my non-crossover stories, specifically the Outcasts and Rogues series as well as several other tales.**


	2. Chapter 2

_010.M42_

A bright flash from a Necron Gauss weapon lanced passed the face of Ellarian who barely avoided the deadly shot, his back was planted to the surface of a black stone obelisk and he began to reload the power cell of his Long Rifle. The surviving mercenaries and pirates of whom they had come to assist were firing back at the advancing Necrons with small arms fire, most were equipped with slug throwers or laser weapons but few had the proper armaments to deal any real damage to the soulless automatons. Smoke rose up into the dark sky as fires burned from the wreckage of the light vehicles which carried the heavier weapons.

'We have to get out of here!' shouted one of the other pirates over the communications network.

'What about the charges!?' called Sheia.

'Already set' answered a kroot mercenary. 'Detonator with vox-man'

Leaning out from cover to look at the entrance again, Ellarian saw the battalion of green glowing Necron Warriors which were slowly but surely making their way out of the tunnel. The advanced optics which protected his eyes picked and highlighted eight sets of metal tube charges placed along the mouth of the tunnel, not far from it a boxy vox-unit was carried on the back of a dead human pirate, most likely the one carrying the detonator. Quickly going back into cover, he then reached for his bandolier and pulled out a pulsing cyan crystalline shard which throbbed with barely contained energy.

'Sheia, I need covering fire' called the Ranger as he sent a mental command to the shard which immediately began to glow with a bright light. Bursting into motion, Ellarian discarded his Long Rifle and he swiftly began running towards the vox-unit, the crystalline device in his hand which was known as a Shimmer Shard which used the same defensive shielding technology as the Shimmer Orbs of the Warp Spider Aspect Temple, albeit with a significantly smaller energy field which would only be effective for protecting a small group of about two to three individuals but it did not detract from its overall defensive power nor was the period of time which it lasted decreased.

'You heard him! Suppressive Fire!' shouted Sheia and a bright rail shot was launched from her rifle along with a deadly fusillade from the others.

Gauss bolts flew past the fleet footed Ranger and the ones which did connect were harmlessly blocked by the Shimmer Shard's shield. Sprinting towards the fallen vox-unit he safely managed to get to the corpse, the dead human who carried it had been slain by a heavy bolt round to the head and leaving a grisly mess. Searching the body, he immediately found the cylindrical detonator in the corpse's hand.

Thumbing the detonator, the charges immediately exploded in a shower of flames, smoke and rubble. Heavy stones collapsed around the entrance of the tunnel and creating a cloud of black dust which engulfed all those outside the tunnel. The ground shook as the rocks struck the black earth, his vision was obscured but the red lenses of his helmet provided adequate protection from the grit and he heard the voices of the others over the communications channel.

'Did we get them!?' asked one of the humans.

'Do you really want to wait for the Necrons!?' replied another. 'Come on; let's get the hell out of here!'

'Ellarian, are you all right?' came Sheia's concerned voice.

'I am unharmed' replied the Ranger who looked to the entrance of the cavern and as the dust settled, he saw the pile of rubble which blocked the path into necropolis. Knowing well enough that mere stone would not be able to hold off the Necrons for long, he reached for another object attached to his belt and he removed a wraithbone rod which ended in a red gem-like sphere. Kneeling down and planting the rod unto the rocky ground, he sent a mental command which caused three short legs to protrude from the base and the gem began to softly glow.

'Control, we have just collapsed one of the necropolis entrances and have sustained multiple casualties' called Ellarian over the network while switching to his native tongue. 'I need sentry guns Support Platforms and medical assistance on my position'.

'On it, we are sending support your way' calmly replied another Eldar over the network and immediately in the open space near the Ranger, the air began to shimmer. Allowing the Relocation Matrix Beacon which he had set to do its work, he turned around to face the surviving corsairs.

'Gather the dead and the wounded' he somberly said 'let us bring them aboard the _Draukhain_ …'

* * *

 _2182 CE_

Walking up a flight of rusty, metallic stairs, Sarakshi heard a soft patter as her boots touched the corroded surface. Ignoring the distant sounds of gunfire, likely some gang fight she thought while keeping one hand close to her Stiletto III Pistol. Small insects and other verminous creatures crawled along the walls and staircase of the run-down flophouse and if one looked closer, there were also many a bullet hole here and there.

It was cheap at least and better than sleeping by the gutters and in a cesspit like Isfet, even a small bit of security went a long way. Taking a left as she reached her floor, the mercenary looked about to see if there were any others as one could never be too sure. Finding that she was the only one around, the mercenary quickly made it to door leading into her room and she punched in a 3 digit code which locked her quarters.

After a soft click, the automatic door jerkily slid open and the mercenary entered the small space. Roughly between nine to ten square meters in width and even less in length, the only furnishings within the cheap quarters was a insect-infested cot on the floor and an absolutely filthy looking toilet next to it. Glad once more that she would constantly have to wear her environmental suit, Sarakshi sat down upon the bedding and prepared to retire for the night.

About an hour later, she was suddenly awakened by a heavy pounding on the doorway and she heard someone on the other side. 'Open up Quarian!' shouted a deep growling voice which carried a Batarian accent with it. 'We know you are in there!'

'Ah Keelah' groggily groaned Sarakshi as she got up and dragged her feet towards the door and she gently pounded her right fist on the side console to open it. Again, the door slid open with a rusty creak and the Quarian was greeted by a pair of Batarians and a Turian, all were equipped with full suits of armor and she quickly noticed the unfolded shotguns in their hands. 'What do you want?' growled the Quarian mercenary who immediately knew who these thugs were working for.

'Now that's a bit rude, don't you think' replied the batarian at the front with a devious grin, the many eyed alien wore no helmet and she saw the avaricious gleam in his eyes.

'I already got Kaloth's money and I can pay him back in two days' spoke Sarakshi whose tone made it clear that she wanted for them to get to the point. The lead Batarian frowned a bit and nodded before composing himself.

'The boss is altering the deal' said the batarian more assertively. 'Pay up now and maybe we won't alter it further.'

Knowing well enough that she didn't have much of a choice in the matter, especially considering that there were three shotgun-toting thugs in right in front of her, the Quarian slumped her shoulders in defeat and activated her omni-tools. Grumbling a series of profanities in her native tongue and fantasizing about putting a bullet in the heads of the three aliens in front of her, she quickly accessed her credit balance. The lead batarian activated his own omni-tool and Sarakshi quickly made the transfer of over six thousand credit, almost half of what she had left, including all of the advanced payment for the current contract.

'Hmph, too bad' commented the Batarian rather mockingly as his shotgun immediately folded into carry mode. 'I was looking forward to having some fun'

Glaring at the trio gangsters from beneath the visor of her helmet, she quickly pressed the console again and the door slid shut. A soft frustrated escaped her lips and she turned around, hoping that the night would pass by without any further interruptions.

* * *

 _Elsewhere on Isfet…_

Grenades and rockets exploded around the warehouse, bullets flew from the blazing muzzles of guns and the smell of freshly spilled blood mixed with the stench of burning flesh. A band of red armored Blood Pack mercenaries clashed with a group of Blue Sun composed of mostly Batarians, Turians and some humans who wore the same armor as the Batarians, the Blue Suns were on the defense behind makeshift defenses while the Blood Pack moved in for the kill. The Vorcha fodder which had been first sent in had served their purpose; their corpses littered the cold floor with many more still available while the hammer of their assault, the Krogan themselves, lay down a punishing volley of fire while packs of trained attack Varren bounded towards Blue Suns.

'Victory or Death!' half roared and half laughed Surtur as he fired his Breaker VIII at full-auto, each round was coated with a highly combustible thermite paste and he did not worry much about overheating, thanks to the frictionless material upgrades he had placed into his gun. A Turian Blue Sun with an Assault Rifle got out of cover and tried to shoot the Krogan, but Surtur reacted faster and he filled the overgrown bird with incendiary rounds and he watched with amusement as it ignited in flame.

Unlike the other Blood Pack members, Surtur wore a mighty suit of Heavy Colossus VII which was the color of black and red. Seeing through the twin eye lenses of his helmet, he saw his kinetic barrier flare up as several rounds struck against him along with the direction from which they came. Quickly moving into cover behind a series of stacked crates and giving his shields time to recharge, he reached for his bandolier and removed one grenade which he immediately primed.

Moving out from cover and hurling the explosive disc towards a stack of crates, he went back to his previous position and he mentally began to count before the satisfying detonation rang out across the warehouse. Two Blue Sun mercs who had just been shooting at him began screaming in agony as they were showered by a spray of sticky thermal paste which clung to their blue armor and it burned into flesh, the very thought of which caused Surtur to chuckle in amusement.

'You Suns better run while you still got the chance!' shouted the Krogan with mockery over the continued sound of gunfire.

'Hey screw you!' replied one of the Blue Suns who sounded like a human.

'Heh, can't say I didn't try' quietly muttered Surtur to himself who preferred it when his enemies neither ran nor did they surrendered. Folding up his Breaker VIII and placing it upon his back, he then reached for his Armageddon IX which was also loaded with incendiary ammunition. If there was one thing he liked about the fledgling space-faring species known as humans, it was the high quality of arms and armor which they could produce, especially from the Kassa Fabrications and Rosenkov Materials manufacturers.

Taking a deep breath of the recycled air within his helmet, he let loose a loud, bestial roar as he ran out from cover and began sprinting towards another group of Blue Suns. Bullets slammed into his Kinetic Barrier which was heavily reinforced by his armor' shield interface upgrades and as he closed the distance, he activated Shield Boost to quickly recuperate his defenses. Lowering his right shoulder, he struck a heavy metal crate with such force that it was knocked over and into a Blue Sun who was crushed by the weight of it.

Ignoring the flare of pain as the impact went jarred his bone; he quickly swung his shotgun to his left and fired a hail of burning shot towards a pair of Turians and lighting them up on fire. More bullets slammed against his back, the HUD on his helmet showed the status of his shields and he quickly turned around with his Armageddon IX following. His weapon struck the side of a helmetless Batarian's head, the momentum and the strength behind the swing created both a loud smack of metal against flesh along with a loud snap of bone.

He then fired another volley of burning shot which ignited another Batarian. Grinning beneath his helmet, he continued to kill and kill, the blood and ashes of his foes added to the dark paint of his armor.

* * *

 _010.M42_

Stepping out of a shimmering portal which led into the Webway, Ellarian felt a familiar comforting warmth, like that of a sun on a summer day but without its harshness. Behind the Ranger, there stood an active Webway Gate; psychic runes placed along its surface gave off a healing aura which revitalized him, a shame that it only affected Eldar. Gravity biers bearing the wounded from other species came through the gate, humans, kroot, tarellians, galg, vespid, enoulian, loxatl, jokaero and even a few tau were among the many which now filled the _Draukhain's_ alien medical bay.

Roving among the wounded assortment of alien mercenaries and pirates were ghoulish, pale-skinned bare-foot creatures wearing dark leather kilts and black grilled helmets. Many of them sported extra arms which had been stitched onto their torsos while some also had their hands replaced with cruel surgical implements.

The sight of the Fleshcrafters which the Crescent Wings employed both as medical staff and torturers had never failed to unnerve Ellarian for he knew fully well that beneath the dark helmets which they wore, the face of another Eldar lay within it. They fed upon the pain and the suffering of their patients, empowering them to work faster and with greater surgical precision. He supposed that it made sense, considering that due to their knowledge of alien anatomies, they would be rather knowledgeable both in the easing and infliction of pain.

'Can we leave now?' asked the nervous voice of Sheia and Ellarian could not agree more. The other corsairs they had met in front of the tunnel were now gathered in front of the Webway Gate, many were familiar with these places of healing which quite often, encouraged the non-Eldar members of the Crescent Wings to as much as possible, avoid being wounded. Hearing the soft, almost silent slaps of bare feet upon the wraithbone deck, the Ranger looked ahead and saw one of the Fleshcrafters approach.

'More patients' spoke a muffled, sibilant voice from beneath the dark helmet. Quietly nodding, Ellarian stood aside and allowed one of the gravity biers to pass him by, the injured pirate it bore, a human male tightly holding on to the stump of his right arm which had been vaporized by Gauss Flayer, gave the Ranger a pleading look as he passed and he tried to get off the platform before the Fleshcrafter quickly put a stop to the escape attempt by grabbing the wounded human's shoulders.

'You will be restored soon little _Mon'keigh_ ' purred the Fleshcrafter, a long bone-like appendage upon the back of the ghoulish thing extended towards the human, Ellarian could clearly see that it ended with a long, chemical filled syringe.

Feeling a tug upon the his left sleeve, Ellarian glanced down to see Sheia hand pulling him and the Ranger quickly took his leave along with her and the others who were not wounded, the Fleshcrafters paid them little heed and as soon as they made it to the doors, the screaming began. Shuddering at the thought of being tended to by those who followed the Dark Kin's unwholesome disciplines, he tried to put such thoughts away and instead, focused on what else they should do for there still was an ongoing battle upon the planet's surface and above. Once more, the Ranger tapped into the communications channel and he listened in on the chatter while they parted ways with those they had accompanied.

Baron Morvael's diversionary assault upon the greenskins had been successful and the belligerent savages had given chase to the swift Jetbike riders who would lead them into a large group of Chaos troops. The human pirate ship, _Void Duchess_ had successfully boarded an Imperial Cruiser and deployed relocation matrix beacons within, allowing for the Aurora Cruiser, _Memory of Eadaion_ to land its own boarding parties. Beneath the surface of the planet, scouting parties were making use of Psychomaton drones to reconnoiter and gather data on the great necropolis.

Continuing to monitor the conversations, Ellarian picked up a transmission which piqued his interest and he immediately sent it towards Sheia.

'-ve spotted an intact Imperial Landing Ship touch down on the surface' spoke the melodious voice of another Eldar. 'Chaos forces are currently converging upon the vessel'.

'Estimates on their numbers?' asked one of the Eldar communications officers aboard the _Draukhain_.

'Three rhinos and…' replied the other Eldar who trailed off before continuing. 'I see Chaos Marines disembarking, lesser _Mon'keigh_ as well.'

'Do you have the numbers to engage them?' questioned the communications officer.

'Negative there is only myself and two other Rangers' replied the other Eldar. 'Wait, we have picked up a distress signal from the ship, switching now.'

The channel then became filled with the muffled sounds of gunfire, the distant roar of chain weapons and the screams of the dying. Orders were being shouted but it was drowned out by more gunfire and screaming.

'Mayday! Mayday! Emperor's Mercy can anyone here me!?' came the desperate voice of a human over the transmission. 'Heretic forces have hijacked our ship and forced us to land! We are trying to take back control but we need reinforcements!'

'It sounds serious' commented Sheia, her voice carried with it a dire timbre. 'No good can come of anything pertaining to the _Gue'mont'sha_.'

'Agreed' replied the Ranger who continued to listen on.

'We are carrying valuable cargo, Grade Primaris, I repeat, we are carrying Primaris Grade cargo!' shouted the human who was immediately interrupted by more gunfire. 'We can't let the damned heretics get their hands on it! And we don't have the means to scuttle it!'

'Serious and valuable' added the Ranger.

'A snatch and grab then?' asked Sheia.

'Among other things' answered Ellarian and he knew that his companion would willingly take part in looking into this matter.

In relatively few but rather eventful passes which Ellarian had known the Tau female since their reunion upon a world called Nussara VII, he had found Sheia to be a staunch opponent against the slaves of the Dark Gods. On their many shared adventure as part of the Crescent Wings Corsairs, they had fought many a battle against tainted humans, mutants, daemons and many other terrible things. There was also the fact that the two of them quite oddly, seemed to work very well with another and in ways which was unusual, to say the least.

'I will switch loadouts and meet you at the deployment bay' announced the Tau female who then raised her right hand up while the palm of the other was placed upon the Ranger's chestplate. Mirroring the gesture and clasping the outstretched right arm by the wrist and placing his other hand's palm on Sheia's chest, they both gently pressed their palms to one another before nodding in respect. They both turned around parted ways for now, both moved swiftly and silently along the wraithbone corridors of the _Draukhain_ and Ellarian made contact with the other Outcasts.

'This is Ellarian' he spoke. 'Send me your squad's coordinates and we will be meeting your party planetside…'

* * *

 _2182 CE_

A brief silence fell upon the warehouse where the two mercenary groups had been battling and before long, a series of victorious battle cries were shouted by the Blood Pack. The Varren noisily feasted on the dead, both of the Blue Suns and the Blood Pack Vorcha that had been gunned down in the shootout while more than a few of the Krogan continued to fire their guns towards the ceiling. Energized by both the euphoria and adrenaline from the fight, each of the Krogan truly felt alive during victories such as this.

It was not long afterwards that they began to stow their weapons and started lifting up the heavy crates which the Blue Suns were keen on protecting. Most of the containers probably carried either guns, drugs or other things which would not be legal in Citadel Space but in the Terminus Systems, it fetched high prices from the right buyers. Either way, tonight was a good night thought Surtur as he still felt giddy from the fight.

'Guess freelancing hasn't dulled your edge' came the throaty, guttural and muffled voice of Urthak Garr, an up and coming Battle Master who was also in full armor.

'Ha! And I am surprised you can still move around with that stick up your ass!' replied Surtur with good humor and two mercenaries shared a hearty laugh before shaking hands. 'So what's with all this stuff anyway?' asked Surtur while looking around the warehouse.

'The usual' shrugged Garr. 'Client wanted to make sure this shipment doesn't get to some warlord in the Serpent Nebula and instead make sure it goes to a planet called Nemata'.

'Yeah? Well good luck with that, cargo carrying was never my thing' said Surtur.

'All your good for is getting into fights with pyjaks' half-heartedly mocked Garr.

'Fighting and winning' laughed Surtur.

'Anyway, you did good by us and Pack could still use a mean son of a varren like you around' then said Garr.

'Nah, I bet Korge and some of the other Weyrlocs would just love the chance to pop a few Shredders on my ass' declined Surtur.

'Your fault for screwing that Battlemaster's daughter' reminded Garr.

'You really got to bring that up again?' replied Surtur with annoyance.

'Hey, count yourself lucky that no kid popped out from that' continued Garr. 'If there was one, I bet the bounty on your head would be big enough that even I would think about kicking your ass'.

'I'd like to see you try' dryly responded Surtur.

'Right, well we honestly should get moving' said Garr as he then activated his omni-tools. 'Here is your cut for helping get the job done, shame about the Vorcha though'.

'There will be more' nonchalantly shrugged Surtur and as checked his own omni-tool. Seeing the increase in his credit account brought a slight smile to the freelance mercenary who then noticed that he had a message.

'Take care of yourself and don't get yourself shot out there' Garr then said with a nod before bellowing orders to a group of Vorcha.

'You too' quietly replied Surtur who then went back to his omni-tool and he checked the message and it said:

 _Just got a job and I need a team, pay is good and the client checks out. Interested?_

 _\- V_

'As long as I get the chance to shoot someone' muttered Surtur to himself who then began to make his reply.

 _Ys, pm deets pls?_

 _\- S0r+r_

Shutting down his Omni-tool for the time being, he began lumbering towards the exit of the warehouse, the other Krogan merely nodded in acknowledgment while the Vorcha stayed out of his way. By the time he got back out into the barren, vermin-infested streets of the colony, he heard a beeping from his Omni-tool. Checking it once more, he read the information which had been sent to him and he grinned for indeed the payment for the job seemed enough to interest him.

Of course, he was more interested with the opportunity of being able to fight something.

* * *

010.M42

' _No expansions without equilibrium'_ whispers Shas'nel T'au Sheia, Fireblade of the Farsight Enclave.

 _'_ _No conquest without control'_ she continues while sheathing a combat knife by her belt.

 _'_ _Pursue success in serenity'_ she quietly speaks as she dons her helmet.

 _'_ _And service to the Tau'va'_ finishes Sheia who opens her eyes.

The words of the great commander O'Shi'Ur had always deeply resonated within the heart of Sheia. In what was seemed to be a lifetime ago, back when she still been a Shas'saal, back when she had still lived on T'au, she had spent as much time engaging in training exercises as she would studying the past achievements of the Fire Caste's great heroes. In those days, everything seemed so clear, her purpose was to fight and to serve the Empire, serve the Greater Good, it had all been so black and white when her perceptions were clouded by the will of the Ethereals.

Her time among the Farsight Enclave had done little to assuage the doubt born of her defection and when the assignment came to work with pirate organizations and engage in intelligence gathering far from the borders of the Empire, it seemed like just another mission. Never would the Fireblade have thought that living free among the various crews of corsairs, mercenaries, freedom fighters and even terrorists, would have given her both the insight and the perspective she needed to finally find the peace of mind which she had so desperately sought. Having fully embraced this new life, this new path which she had chosen, she was willing to give her all for the good of the group.

Within the spacious chamber where many weapons and equipment from different species were stockpiled, Sheia prepared herself for battle once more. The Fireblade had replaced her light Recon Armor with a fresh full set of Combat Armor constructed from the advanced metallurgical materials issued to Cadres which specialized in the way of the Patient Hunter along with a long white cape which had been presented to her when she had been promoted to her current rank. Now, she chose from the weapon racks which implements of death she would bring to the _Gue'mont'sha_ , the human followers of Chaos.

Most of the guns which rested before her were of _Gue'la_ manufacture, likely taken from slain Imperial forces or smuggled by one of the many underworld organizations and syndicates which the Crescent Wings pirate clan often associated with. While the Fireblade had on occasion found reason to use human weaponry, she was non too fond of them and instead she moved towards a selection which she was more comfortable with. Placed along another set of shelves were the guns constructed by the Earth Caste. Pulse weapons, Rail and Ion Rifles were among those which awaited the Fireblade who was proficient in the use of each and every single one before finally, she made her choice.

Reaching for one of the newer types of weapons which had recently become part of the standard issue equipment for the Fire Caste, she picked up a weapon called a Pulse Blaster which shared many similarities with a type of human weapon known as a shotgun. Able to fire a spray of pulse rounds which becomes even more powerful at a closer range, such a weapon had proven popular among those within the Farsight Enclave who adhered to O'Shovah's teachings regarding close quarters fighting. The Pulse Blaster though was ultimately a short ranged weapon and against a foe who was much further away, it would be ineffective, so the Fireblade also took a Pulse Carbine with an Accelerator attachment, thus improving its range to be comparable to human laser rifles or bolt guns.

Once Sheia had finished personally equipping herself, she then moved towards another series of racks where several drones remained inactive. Setting aside her Pulse Blaster, the Fireblade then picked up a MV4 Shield Drone which she manually activated, the little red eye of the machine flickered to life as its systems booted up and its anti-gravity generators began to emit a soft hum. As the drone lifted off from her hands, Sheia then began tapping onto a portable console mounted on her left forearm, setting it to guard mode before repeating the process with a nearby Gravity Inhibitor Drone.

Picking up her Pulse Blaster again, she gave time for the Drones to finish their systems check and once both were set to guard her, she turned towards the exit of the armory. Walking through the pristine, organically shaped halls of the Eldar pirate vessel, she headed towards the section of the ship where the Corsair forces would stand ready for deployment. As the Fireblade drew closer to the gate which led into the deployment bay, she saw a familiar, figure who was also moving down the corridor.

Her helmet's HUD highlighted Ellarian who was equipped with a heavy suit of gilded mesh armor and wearing his pointy midnight black helmet with red eye lenses. In his hands, he carried a twin-linked scoped shuriken gun and upon his back was another weapon which she recognized as a type of Eldar laser weapon used by their winged warriors. The Fireblade also noticed the distortion of the air around Ellarian, possibly either an energy shield or one of those holographic devices which their species also used for defensive purposes. A fresh bandolier of grenades and mines was attached to the tall alien's belt along with other devices which would be useful for various other situations that could arise.

'Ready?' spoke the muffled voice of Ellarian.

'As always' amiably answered Shas'nel T'au Sheia and the two headed towards the deployment bay.


	3. Chapter 3

_2182 CE_

"MOON SHINING LIGHT HIDE TWO LOVERS WITHS ITS RAYS" blared the alarm on Sarakshi's Omni-tool which she had forgotten to switch off last night and her eyes flew wide open beneath her helmet's visor.

' _Keelah_ ' groaned the Quarian as she slapped a holo-key and the music ceased. Note to self she blearily thought, never use your favorite film's song as an alarm tone, you will grow to hate it. Damp sweat coated the flesh beneath her environmental suit which would be recycled into something consumable and she felt as heavy as an ore-filled cargo crate.

The combined after effects of all the turian brandy she had drunk and the stimulants she had taken before the meeting had made her feel sluggish and tired. She wanted to just lie down and sleep, let her body recover and get it all out of her system. Even just thinking was an arduous task for her that left her mentally exhausted.

So she lay there for Ancestor's knows how long in that filthy little space as insects skittered about until and she drifted in and out of consciousness. Eventually, her Omni-tools beeped again, signalling that she had a message. Tapping on the holo-keys and checking on it, she saw that there was indeed a message for her from the Asari, Eriynia.

Everything seemed to be ready she saw, a mercenary crew had been assembled and a ship hired for the job. Finally thought Sarakshi as she wanted nothing more than to get away from this cesspit of a planet, even for a little while. Tapping the keys again, she replied that she would be on her way and after the message was sent, she grudgingly began making a new one.

Sarakshi of course had to let her debtors know that she would be leaving the planet to go on the job. Being fully aware of the bounty that would be put on her head if she just decided to up and leave, she added to the message promises to come back. It really would have been worse anyway if she did leave for in parts of the galaxy like the Terminus, there were no shortage of brutal and absolutely ruthless mercs who would murder their own kin for a few extra credits.

I should have gone to Citadel Space, she thought, maybe being made into an indentured laborer on Ilium would have been far better than getting shot at on a regular basis. Or you could have ended up in a prison on some penal colony, another part of her mind added. It was no secret that many species saw her people as thieves and criminals, she had heard stories of those on their pilgrimage be accused of crimes they were innocent of and of course, most quarians would not even be able to afford having something like a lawyer to help them out in case of any such legal problems.

The only acceptable option many of her people had when facing prosecution from law enforcing agencies such as the Citadel Security was to either run for it and not get caught in that sort of situation in the first place. Shaking her head and pushing away these thoughts, Sarakshi made sure to gather her things before heading out, which honestly was not much. When she left her little flat, all the Quarian carried was her Stiletto III pistol, Equalizer IV sniper rifle, Cipher III Omni-tools a few extra ammunition magazines, several proximity mines, Med-gel and dextro-amino ration packs of dubious expiration dates.

Going down the ill-maintained steps again and shortly afterwards out the front door, she got her replies from the loan sharks, acknowledging her leaving and many included reminders of what would happen if she ran. Back out into the trash filled streets and corroded buildings that filled the lawless colony of Isfet, she barely saw the dim red sun of the planet beneath a cloud of smog. More gunshots were heard in the distance, probably some gangs fighting a turf war or a hit on some poor _bosh'tet_.

Hailing for a cab, she did not have to wait long before a skycar arrived and was soon on her way to the spaceport. The grimy colony passed her by and Sarakshi kept one hand close to her pistol. More than one enterprising robber masqueraded as a public transport driver and the quarian was not about to take any chances.

Thankfully, she arrived at the spaceport without incident and after paying her fare, she got off and headed towards the open entrance. The presence of hired mercenary guards of many different species were heavy in the spaceport, many bore armor colored in grey and green, the visors of their helmets focused on the armed groups of travelers that passed by. Sarakshi distinctly remembered seeing just last a week, a different group of mercenary guards in white and orange, she guessed that the port was under "new management".

The spaceport's facilities were fairly wide and spacious with enough room for cargo hauling vehicles to move about. Like the rest of the colony, the walls were covered in rust, grime and if one looked closely enough, they would find patches of long dried blood from different species along with bullet-holes. Many of the guards, especially those from the three big Terminus groups like the Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack, eyed each warily and Sarakshi was certain that more than few were there to study the defenses.

There was a lot of money to be made in controlling a port like this. Taxing ships delivering passengers and goods (with both being quite interchangeable in the Terminus), setting up rackets or offering protection for money. She would not be surprised if or when she came back, the space port had some new owners.

Checking her Omni-tools again and looking at Eriynia's message, she saw that she should meet them all at Docking Bay 3. Nodding, she headed towards the assigned meeting point where she passed by more groups of armed pirates and mercs. Some Blood Pack Varren barked at a pair of Eclipse Asari who responded with sneers followed by bright glows of Biotic energy and Sarkshi quickened her pace before bullets started flying.

When she arrived at the gates of the docking bay, Sarakshi was greeted by a familiar, hulking figure hefting some heavy ordnance

'Hey Bonehead!' called Sarakshi, referring to the head plate all Krogan possessed and her mood immediately improved.

'We must be heading to someplace dark if your coming too' joked the Krogan mercenary, Surtur. 'Got that flashlight you call a helmet all charged up?'

'Bright enough to blind a jellyfish' replied Sarakshi with amusement.

'Ha! We will use it like a beacon, let them know where I am!' announced the krogan with his usual pre-battle bravado.

Lightly laughing Sarakshi genuinely enjoyed the company of the brutish yet laidback Krogan who had a way with making light of almost any situation. Like Vayl, she had met the mercenary while out on the job; they had been worked together as a sniper team and had put down some pirates who had been raiding a human colony near the Attican Traverse. Surtur was the kind of person you wanted on your side in a fight, tough, dependable and a real bullet magnet when the enemy shot back.

'What's that you got there?' asked Sarakshi for at a closer look, she saw that the Krogan was carrying a huge gun.

'Machine Gun' grinned the beige skinned, red plated and yellow eyed Krogan. 'It's a cut down version of a vehicle mounted weapon with a lot of special modification, extremely illegal in Citadel space.

'Sounds perfect' nods Sarakshi who grins a little beneath her helmet. Without another word being needed, they headed into the hangar to meet up with the others.

The hangar was as Sarakshi expected, a very wide and open space. It was as corroded and filthy as the rest of the spaceport and the ship that was docked, equally so. A Kowloon class star ship was landed at the centre of the space and the Quarian saw a few familiar figures waiting near the vessel.

She saw the Asari Matriarch conversing with a human male wearing a black and white colored garments, both had Omni-tools activated as they talked. Leaning by the hull of the ship was a dark green armored, grey skinned female Turian, Vayl. Multiple armed, VI-controlled Synthetics stood guard around the area, Sarakshi became somewhat uneasy around the machines which she knew were called LOKI or Vallatha Yalris looked up from her Omni-tool and she lazily waved at Sarakshi and Surtur.

'Right on time' calls the voice of the Turian female over a short range frequency which the mercenary team had used multiple times in the past. Moving up to the idling Turian, Surtur spoke up once they were within conversational distance.

'So who else is coming?' questioned the Krogan as their employer was still busy talking with the human.

'Three others' coolly replies the Turian. 'We have two more Biotics and a tech-specialist I have called up.'

'Anyone we know?' asks Sarakshi.

'Terrid is on-board with the job' answers the Turian, referring to a Salarian Engineer who supposedly had once been a member of the STG. 'Meyra and Kortan are also on the way.'

'It must be very serious if you called all of them' comments Sarakshi for she knew each of these mercenaries as of being some of the best free lancers in the sector and all charged some very exorbitent fees for their service. Kortan was quite bizarrely, a Volus Biotic specialist, an Adept who Sarakshi once saw wipe out an entire pirate crew with nothing but his mind. Meyra was another Asari, a Sentinel who worked best in keeping a group alive through a mixture of Biotic and Tech skills.

This unfortunately begged the honest question of what exactly they would be going up against. It seemed like a bit of overkill to hire freelance mercenaries of such high calibre against another mercenary band, unless of the latter was in turn a group of, how a she had once heard a human bounty hunter say "goddamned tough bastards". Her questions it seemed would be answered soon as the Asari Matriarch approached them with the human accompanying her.

'I am glad you can all make' greeted their employer who then gestures to the human male who offers a polite, friendly smile as his eyes are covered by two lenses of dark glass.

'Nikolai Orlov at your service' says the human who raises a hand towards Sarakshi and Surtur. Recognizing this a human gesture of greeting, she is about to shake the man's hand but Surtur beats her to it and the big Krogan tightly squeezes the extremity. For a moment, the human briefly loses that smile which becomes a pained wince.

'Urdnot Surtur' grunts the big Krogan as he squeezes the proffered hand which has four fingers and one opposable thumb like that of an Asari or a Drell.

'I see that you are big fan of Kassa Fabrications' comments the human towards Surtur as he instantly regains his previous friendliness and he notices as well the heavy gun . 'You certainly have an eye for the top of the line merchandise.'

Surtur grins in amusement for aside from fighting, talking about guns was one of the Krogan's greatest passions.

'Its worth every credit to have the best gear out there' replies Surtur.

'I think we are going to get along just fine' smiles the human who then looks to Sarakshi.' And I see you're a fan of Haliat Armory.'

'It's affordable' shrugs Sarakshi who soon also shakes the human's hand and introduces herself. 'So are you the captain of this ship?'

'Owner, but not the one who pilots it' answers the human. 'The Obsidian Eagle may not look much but she is fast ship and perfect for someone who is in the arms business.'

'You're a gun runner?' asks the Quarian.

'Indeed I am' grins the human again. 'But we can talk about that later.'

'Mr. Orlov here has agreed to grant us passage aboard his ship' speaks Eriynia.

'There are many pirates and warlords here in the Terminus who know the Obsidian Falcon' explains Nikolai. 'Anyone who spots us will likely also know exactly who we supply and what happens to those who... interfere with a supplier who has protection.'

'So we should be safe?' asks Sarakshi for pirates, other mercenaries and local militias were always a problem across the Terminus Systems.

'Well I can't fully guarantee complete security with the Terminus Systems being what it is but it sure as hell would deter a lot of potential attackers' assures Nikolai.

'I guess we will just have to hope for the best' shrugs Sarakshi as she then looks to the Asari Matriarch. 'Can I ask you a few things before we leave? About this mission?'

'Of course' nods their employer who gestures to Nikolai for to leave them and the human acquiesces. 'I am sure you still have more questions about the job.'

'The two of you go ahead, I am just gonna go hit the can before we take off announces Surtur. 'Wouldn't want to clog up the only toilet aboard the ship.'

Allowing the Kroganto answer the call of nature, Sarakshi looked back to the Asari Matriarch who had a nervous look about her. 'What I told you last night was not exactly everything and I suppose that since you have agreed to this, there are others things you have a right to know of.'

Somehow it was not very heartening to hear that from the Asari Matriarch and Sarakshi began to suddenly have a bad feeling about this job.

* * *

 _M010.M42_

"When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back" an ancient philosopher from the Age of Terra had once said, in a time long before Man had reached the stars. It was a curious thing, wondered Inquistor Enok Jaqar as his steel grey eyes stared into the void of space, that endless black sea. He had heard stories about how in the days yore, humanity wondered whether they were alone in the galaxy and part of the reason why they expanded and explored so aggressively was to answer that fundamental question.

There were times he wondered if it would have perhaps been better for Man to have

never left Terra or at least the Sol System for the void had proven to be dark and full of terror. He wondered which xeno species was the first to make contact with Man and what was the reaction of those ancient void-farers to find sentient life. He would not have been surprised if first contact was with some belligerent, warlike xenos like the Orks.

Distant stars dotted the impossibly vast horizon as brief yet bright flashes of light bloomed relatively not far away. A great battle was being fought in the void above that nameless world, thousands of lives were snuffed out with each passing second as every ship ferried tens of thousands of human lives. It was simply such a waste, and for what? Some faint hope that they might find a relic of great power?

To be honest, Inquisitor Jaqar had only some idea of why they were there but not the whole picture and it bothered him to no end for the Inquisitor Lords of the Conclave of Nurena were as ever, tight lipped about its activities, especially with those beneath them as they strictly maintained a "need to know policy". He was tired and perhaps getting a little sentimental in his advanced years. Looking at his reflection upon the viewing port of a Lunar Cruiser's Command Bridge, he saw an ebon skinned man of seemingly middling years with short cropped greying hair and dressed in simple dark red robes stared back from the glass-like surface.

For more than two hundred years, Inquisitor Jaqar had served both Emperor and Imperium as a member of the Ordo Xenos. He had braved the anarchic depths of Hive Worlds to purge entire cults of Genestealers, he had put cells of Tauist insurgents to the sword and had once even survived the nightmare raids of Eldar pirates upon a Shrine World. In all of his years of service, he had painfully come to learn that the danger posed by the Xenos was equal to that of Chaos.

Like the followers of the Ruinous powers, the Xenos were capable of threatening the Imperium both overtly and covertly. Species like the Tau and the Tyranids were more than capable of waging open war against the Imperium's forces while subverting the minds of the weak and easily swayed. Xenos like the Orks and the Necrons left nothing but great swathes of destruction across entire worlds while Eldar were a capricious and manipulative force that saw humans as nothing more than pawns in a regicide board.

But if one travelled throughout the galaxy, they would find that the threat of the xenos was even more myriad than it appeared. In places like the lawless Koronus Expanse, there was a highly vicious species of brutal marauders known as the Rak'gol which struck absolute terror in the hearts of Men. In the Malfian Sub-Sector of the Calixis Sector there were nests of brain eating shape shifters known as the Simulacra which could masquerade themselves among the masses of Hive Cities. Even places of the Alien long thought dead posed a threat for there were many an item of Xeno artifice that could drive a man mad just by possessing it.

Yet one of the greatest threats which the alien also posed was that which came from Men who would collude with the foul things. It was not unknown for human pirates to work alongside the alien as they engaged in raids upon colonies and merchant vessels while, it was not unknown for those heretic smugglers and brokers of the Cold Trade or the Faceless Trade to peddle in the sales of xenos items. It was not surprising really that the lawless would break the Emperor's holy decree of speaking not unto the alien but there were also others, high in power within the Imperium such as Planetary Governors, Rogue Traders and even fellow Inquisitors who also believed that there was much to be gained in dealing with xenos, rather than purging them by sword and ford.

The alien was indeed a terrible foe; a by-product of a universe which he sometimes mused was like some impossibly vast Death World on a planar scale or perhaps a malignant entity of its own. As he looked out into the void and the raging battle, he saw all he needed to. The universe itself was either a malevolent or cruel place that fed on the misery of the insignificant specks that dwelt within it or an extremely apathetic and cruel one.

A pair of sword-class frigates were immediately destroyed all souls aboard were most likely now lost. The battle was a real mess from what the Inquisitor saw, the Imperial Navy was engaged in a five way conflict against the Archenemy, Orks, Necrons and the Eldar, the last being what disturbed him the most. Of all the xenos Inquisitor Jaqar has had the displeasure of knowing, none represented everything as foul about the alien as the pirate lord who was somewhere out there.

Closely observing the battle from his ship, Inquisitor Jaqar watched for whichever ship might belong to one known as Eorlianeth Ansgar, Corsair Prince of the Crescent Wings.

'My lord' came the monotonous, mechanical voice of a Servitor that was bent over a vox terminal. 'We have picked up a distress signal from the Devourer Transport Ship, _Peroia_ , standby.'

The Servitor then switches to a and it begins to shout in the voice of another human being 'We are carrying valuable cargo, Grade Primaris, I repeat, we are carrying Primaris Grade cargo!'

His eyes opened widely with surprise for he was aware at the least that there was something the Conclave was transporting to the surface of the planet, an object with priority grade of Primaris. What the _Peroia_ had carried though was something he at least knew of exactly the power it wielded.

'Order all squads of Storm Troopers aboard to prepare for deployment!' called the Inquisitor with newfound energy as the latest development had instantly spurred him out of his brooding. 'It is imperative that the cargo is reclaimed or this entire campaign will be for nought!'

* * *

Emerging from the twisting paths of the Webway, Ellarian was once more greeted by the dead black sky of the nameless world as he now stood upon a ridge with a gently inclined slope. The HUD of his helmet instantly highlighted the cameleoline cloaked forms of a trio of Rangers, two were armed with powered shortswords and shuriken pistols while the third carried a Long Rifle. The other rangers swiftly turned their heads towards him and Sheia and he could sense their surprise at the sight of the Tau female.

+ _Hail and well met my kin_ \+ mentally greets Ellarian through Thought-casting with left palm raised and facing towards the trio of fellow Outcasts.

+ _Hail to you brother_ \+ replies the Ranger with the Long Rifle as he quickly returns his gaze upon the distance where Ellarian could the Imperial transport craft. It looked to be one of those massive landing vessels which were capable of ferrying entire regiments of infantry and companies of tanks. In contrast to dull grey of the ship and the black terrain, he saw many boxy, crimson and brass painted Rhino transports parked near the loading ramp.

'How many humans there' questions Sheia in an accented yet stilted but otherwise understandable Eldarin which causes a collective expression of some further surprise from the other Rangers which Ellarian could sense.

'More than three dozen' verbally responded one of the Rangers wielding a pistol and sword towards Sheia.

'Six Chaos Marines included' added the third Ranger. 'Judging from the distress call, there were already many aboard before the craft landed.'

'I understand' replies the Tau female as she loads a disc shaped explosive charge into her Pulse Carbine and she nods to Ellarian while switching to Gothic which both of them spoke quite fluently. 'Let's clear that ship out.'

'Of course' quietly agrees the Outcast with a slight grin and he could imagine the looks of disdain from the other Rangers at being led around by an alien. It seemed to happen quite often he had noted, that over the course of his many relatively recent adventures among the Crescent Wings Corsairs, he had been more of a follower rather than a leader when working in a group, even in the company of lesser species. Striding down the ridge along with the Tau and her two drones, they ran towards the ship with weapons at ready.

Traversing across such open terrain and on foot would have been foolish at best but Outcast had brought from Armory of the Vranesh a portable holo-field emitter to provide the adequate protection they would need. Fitted over his right forearm like an Avenger Exarch's Shimmershield (which differed from the more potent Shimmer Orbs of the Spider Temple Exarchs), the triangular device was capable of temporarily wreathing a small group in an image distorting defensive shield. It was marked with delicate runes of Harlequin origin, a gift from the Laughing God's for the Corsair warband that also did a great deal of business with the different factions of their species.

The Outcast carried in his hands a most unusual weapon he had picked up in his travels, it was a twin-linked Shuriken Catapult which sported elongated barrels, making it like a mix of an Avenger Pattern Catapult and the Ulthwe Pattern twin pistols which were sometimes used by the high ranking Seers of that craftworld. A miniature grav pod was incorporated into its design like a Commorite Splinter Cannon, making it fairly light and stable while firing. Unsurprisingly, it used up Shurikens rather quickly and without an ammunition cable which would be attached to his right gauntlet and connect to a back mounted storage unit, its capacity was greatly reduced, making it necessary for him to use controlled bursts.

Upon his back, he carried a Sunrifle, a weapon that would normally be exclusive to the Exarchs of the Swooping Hawk Aspect Warriors but in his time of working for the Crescent Wings, he had learned that Prince Ansgar had a way of acquiring all sorts of equipment for the Corsair group's use. The Sunrifle did not possess the same degree of strength as the other Exarch weapon, the Hawk's Talon but it was far superior at piercing the armor of heavy infantry such as Space Marines, Sisters of Battle and Commorite Incubi and its bursts were bright enough to blind targets. He also had brought with him a Fusion Pistol which was holstered by his left hip and mounted on his left forearm was a modified Dark Eldar Terrorfex launcher which could be used to fire a wide panoply of grenades such as Plasma, Haywire, Hallucinogen, Gravity (which was sometimes used by Warp Spider Exarchs), and even most potently, Distort grenades.

Overall, he was confident of their chances in being able to deal with the Rhinos and Space Marines aboard the transport ship. As they drew closer towards the vessel, he could make out the marking upon the Rhinos which had the fronts facing the barren plains and the rears towards the craft. The blood rune of the Chaos God, Khorne was painted over pennants of human hide stretched along the hulls and of the primitive tracked vehicles were adorned with bloody skulls.

Storm Bolters were mounted upon the top hatches of the Rhinos, each were operated by Cultist gunners whose attentions were currently directed upon the vessel. His shuriken and laser weapons would not be very effective against something like a Rhino, so he had loaded a distort grenade into his wrist-mounted launcher. At the moment the holo-emitters power ran out, one of the human gunners swivelled his pintle-mounted weapon upon the two approaching aliens, he was about to shout a warning to his comrades but a laser bolt from the trio of Ranger's silenced him with a shot through the head.

The few seconds delay was all the two of them needed as Ellarian raised his left arm and he launched a distort grenade at the nearest Rhino which still had a gunner while Sheia would have likely launched an EMP grenade from her Pulse Carbine. The distort grenade exploded in a screaming vortex as reality itself was torn asunder, it created a swirling singularity that pulled everything around it into the Warp. The hull of the Rhino tore like paper, the gunner on top was violently shredded as if he had been struck by a Monofilament cloud and any other humans who may have been inside would also have been brutally butchered by the deadly force used by the vortex the remains of flesh and metal sent into Warp in pieces.

In the time which the first Rhino had been destroyed, Ellarian had swiftly turned his attention to the Rhino with the sniped gunner, he used his free hand to draw his Fusion Pistol and he fired at the viewing port. A bright beam of super-heated energy leapt from the barrel, it melted the hull around the hardened glass covered slit which protected the driver who in turn, exploded in a cloud of red mist. Gunshots then came from within the third Rhino, he did not see its human gunner operating the Stormbolter but there were two drones floating above it and after a few seconds, he saw the familiar white helmeted head of Sheia pop out from the hatch and she placed her gloved hands around the pintle-mounted gun.

'We have Chaos forces incoming!' called Sheia over the comms and Ellarian heard the distinct roars of Chain weapons not far away. Bullets and bolter shells struck the hull and the ground near Sheia's Rhino and the one near him the Outcast was instantly on the move.

Ellarian used the Rhino as cover and he leaned out to see the approaching Chaos humans. From the loading ramp of the transport vessel came dozens of _Mon'keigh_ both Astartes and non-enhanced humans, all in the colors favored by the servants of the Blood God. Most were equipped with pistols and close combat weapons but a few carried short ranged scatterguns or solid slug rifles.

The Storm Bolter Sheia had appropriated opened up with a full salvo of miniature explosives that immediately cut down many of the lesser humans while the Space Marines weathered it in their mad frenzy to get in close combat. Reaching for a gravity grenade, Ellarian primed the device and he gave it time to "cook" while maintaining his concealment. Mentally counting the timer as the Chaos Marines charged towards the Tau female, he then hurled the grenade which soon detonated in an invisible wave of energy and the bonds of gravity were temporarily rent apart.

Those Chaos Marines caught in its blast were harmlessly lifted in the air, they roared and raged impotently as they became easy targets for Sheia and Ellarian announced his presence with a volley of brilliant laser bolts. Having quickly switched to the Sunrifle, his laser weapon punched through ceramite plates and two Chaos Marines were felled before they even knew that the Outcast was even there and those who turned to look at him would have been blinded. One of Sheia's drones began projecting a gravity wave of its own upon those Marines not caught in the blast, where Ellarian's destroyed, the Tau burdened them, forcing their charge to become a slow crawl.

It was a testament to the sheer endurance of Astartes physiology that many of the Chaos Marines were able to survive the twin deadly barrages and before the effects of the gravity grenade could pass, Ellarian quickly hurled a plasma grenade towards those caught in the artificial anomaly. The blast wave of searing energy was enough to send power armored bodies flying in charred pieces and those who had been at the edge were also hurled about like ragdolls. A roaring Chaos Marine with plasma scorched armor crashes into the dirt near the Outcast who instinctively fired a short burst of laser bolts at the snarling helmeted head before returning his attention on the others.

'BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!' screamed a mad cultist who appeared behind Ellarian and the Outcast leapt forward, barely in time to avoid the slash of a sword. Landing in a roll, he tumbled only briefly before getting back up to his feet, his gun was raised in the direction of the human who attacked him and he fired a single high powered laser bolt that splattered _Mon'keigh_ brains all over the Rhino's hull. Heading for cover again, he went towards the Rhino Sheia was using, more bullets and bolters shells struck thenar him as he swiftly moved and was able to make it without a scratch.

The roar of Sheia's Stormbolter had ceased and Ellarian glanced up to see the Tau leap over the edge of the Rhino and she landed near the Outcast. Wielding a Pulse Blaster in her hands, the Tau looked to him and gave quiet nod and despite the red lensed white helmet that was spattered in human gore which covered her head, Ellarian understood her meaning. Shouldering his Sunrifle, he loaded a plasma grenade upon his Terrorfex launch before switching to his twin-linked Catapult.

He could hear the approach of the other humans as they attempted to swarm the two and judging by the sound of things, there were still several dozens of them, perfect he decided. Moving out from cover again with Sheia at his side, the unleashed a full barrage of shurikens and pulse rounds. Bright flashes of light flared up as projectiles slammed into the defensive shield by one of Sheia's drones while the other again, projected gravity intensifying waves which slowed the cultists.

The humans died in droves as Ellarian sprayed the wild mob with a bladestorm of shurikens while Sheia's Pulse Blaster fired sprays of energized round at an astonishing rate. The Tau female's gun was capable of killing multiple closely pack targets at once and the closer they came, the more deadly her shots were for at the closest of ranges, even the power of armor of the humans could be cracked open along with the wearer. Like Orks the Khornate cultists came, savage, bloodthirsty, uncaring of their losses and utterly predictable in their madness.

As the two aliens had learned to do so over the passes and many shared adventures, they worked as a team. They at first, watched each others flanks, creating overlapping fields of fire as they then split up and simultaneously moved and shoot. So familiar were they of one another's tactics and strategies that Ellarian could easily predict what Sheia would do next and in turn, the Tau deeply knew him as well.

It was odd to say the least that he had developed such a bond with an alien being but again, since he had joined the Crescent Wings, his travels across the Great Wheel had been less than usual in comparison to the tales told by other Outcasts. More so of some of the... "friends" he had made during his adventures and the unusual relations he had developed with many an alien. There were many details about his adventures that he would not lightly tell another Eldar and one even he would be reluctant to pen if he ever followed the Scholar's Path.

When the ammunition clip of his Catapult ran out, he lifted up his left arm and fired a plasma grenade which detonated in the middle of the Cultist mob and vaporizing many. Sheia as well hurled disc shaped grenade of Tau-make and instead of detonating in a bright flash or a gout of smoke and flame, it creates an expanding sphere of force that sends meat flying off of bone. Such was the insanity of the humans that only a few tried to get clear but most paid no heed to the grenades before it was too late.

More grenades were thrown and more humans were sent screaming to the Dark Gods, within the Warp. In seconds, most of the Cultists are now unrecognizable lumps of meat or charred carcasses, those who survived are easily gunned down by Ellarian and Sheia. When the last of the humans fall, they quietly remain there in silence for a long moment.

'I think we are clear' comms Sheia after several seconds. 'I am not seeing any hostiles.'

'Nor do I' replies the Outcast as his back is planted on the side of the Rhino he had hit with the Fusion Pistol. Cautiously he leaves his position and heads towards the loading ramp where more butchered corpses lie. The dead Astartes are of course the more "intact" of the corpses, where their armor was breached, gore and meat spilled out from the openings and both aliens could easily see the wrongness of the Chaos worshipper's mutated anatomies.

Where most Eldar of the Craftworlds would either take no pleasure or even outright disdain the act of killing another sentient being, Ellarian found a grim sense of satisfaction in seeing his enemies, especially the servants of the Dark Gods, lie bloody and broken before him. He knew that Sheia as well felt the same, there was no cold detachment or ruthless efficiency which the alien warriors of the Tau Fire Caste were supposed to feel, rather she embraced battle and killing in the way an Exarch would. Ellarian then halted as a Chaos Marine stirred, the human shakily rose up from among a pile of dead Astartes, his left arm was shorn from below the elbow, his crudely wrought power armor was blackened by plasmafire and he slowly turned around to face the Outcast.

'VILE XENO WITCH! I WILL CUT OFF YOUR HEAD AND OFFER YOUR SKULL TO KHORNE!' roared the Chaos Marine who lifts his chainaxe and points it at Ellarian. Rolling his eyes beneath the lenses of his helmet the Outcast lowered his Shuriken Catapult and he held it in one hand, he then drew his Fusion Pistol with the other and he walked towards the Chaos Marine. 'YES! COME AT ME ALIEN! COME TASTE THE AXE OF DAGGOTH BLOODCALLER !'

Pointing the barrel of the Fusion Pistol towards the human's right leg Ellarian just heard even more insanely violentranting.

'I WILL DRINK YOUR BLOOD AS IF FROM A CHALICE!' roared the mad Chaos Marine again 'I WILL TEAR YOUR FLESH AND FEED IT TO THE SLAVES! I WILL OFFER YOUR SOUL TO THE DAEMONS OF KHORNE'S! I WILL GRIND YOUR BONES AND-'

The Chaos Marine's words were suddenly cut short as a disc shaped charge struck his chest and it exploded with another expanding sphere of force that sent bits of meat and ceramite flying with some spattering on the Outcast

'I was planning on saving that' dryly says Sheia of the communications. 'But I just wanted that _Gue'la_ to shut up.'

'It was rather satisfying was it not?' comments Ellarian with a slight grin beneath his helmet and he hears soft laughter from the Fireblade. 'Now let us see what valuables are within this ship.'

'Hey can the two of you hear me!?' suddenly comms the voice of one of three rangers from earlier. 'We have just spotted three Imperial Dropships heading your way; they will be there shortly!'

'Never a dull moment' mutters Sheia as she begins reloading her Pulse Carbine.

'We should endeavor to greet our new guests' replies the Outcast and the two quickly head into the cavernous transport vessel. Already, the two of them have a plan on how to best deal with the Imperial reinforcements.


	4. Chapter 4

_010.M42_

The interior of the Imperial transport craft was a complete abattoir. A Devourer, Shas'nel T'au Sheia knew it was called, a transport vessel that was capable of carrying entire regiments of human infantry along with companies of tank. Instead of being loaded with soldiers and war machines, the vessel had been filled with a maze of massive cargo crates likely containing supplies and equipment, the human crew of the ship lay strewn about in various states of dismemberment a few bodies belonging to Chaos fanatics could also be found and crimson gore dripped down from the upper deck.

The Fireblade heard a soft clatter as Ellarian dropped a disc-shaped explosive charge, a proximity mine upon the bloodstained deck. In her previous experiences of travelling with the alien pirate, she had greatly come to appreciate his flexibility and diversity skills for the Eldar had proven to be someone quite dependable in many situations whether on or off the battlefield. He was perhaps one of the few, if only beings in the galaxy who knew her heart so well, a mirror, _J'kaara_ , someone who recognized her strengths and reflected it back manifold.

'What are you setting?' queried Sheia towards the Eldar Corsair as he tossed another mine.

'Flash mines' replies Ellarian who glances over his shoulder to look back to her, the Eldar had taken point and was moving ahead with pistol in hand. 'You do have one of those Blacksun devices on you, yes?'

'I never leave without one' assures Sheia. The Blacksun filter was a very common tool used among Tau forces, it allows its user to see in the dark and it provided protection against blinding lights, such as Photon Grenades for example.

'Of course' nods the Eldar who had already known her answer but Sheia had found that he simply enjoyed making conversation. 'Are you certain of this course of action?' he then asks with less certainty.

'You know me Ellarian' grins the Fireblade beneath her helmet.

'Isha smile on you' says the Eldar Corsair as he turns around and places a hand upon the centre of her chest plate.

'And Earth keep you' replies Sheia before the Eldar Outcast goes off to the upper deck, leaving the Fireblade alone with her two drones which dutifully hovered nearby. Calling for the Shield Drone to come within her reach, she had something special in mind for the machine as she touched the clasp of her white cape...

* * *

'Five by five lads!' calls the pilot of the Valkyrie and the squad of Storm Troopers readies their wargear. Last minute adjustments and ammunitions checks were made by each of the elite soldiers who were all equipped with black carapace armor worn over fatigues of dark blue and gas masks with red eye lenses. Over the hearts of each man was the silver I insignia of the Inquisition.

Turning off the safety on his standard lascarbine, Corporal Childress was somewhat displeased by what his squad had been equipped with for the coming mission. He was aware that the transport ship which they were headed to was carrying a large amount of essential supplies and equipment had been hijacked by traitor forces and that it was essential for the ongoing campaign that the ship be secured as intact as possible. To reduce the risk of "collateral damage", the Storm Troopers had mostly been equipped with laser carbines rather than hotshot lasguns while the sergeants carried bolt pistols along with power swords.

Overall against heretic cultists, they would be fine but against Traitor Space Marines, their only chance of taking even one down was with massed fire. They had not even been issued with fragmentation grenades, only smokes and flash ones to avoid any accidents towards the cargo being carried by the vessel. Whatever the ship was carrying, it must be very important if the Inquisitor Lords of the Conclave needed to send a strike team of Storm Troopers rather than the Space Marines who would likely just wreck the ship.

"Have faith in the Emperor" he reminded himself for does not the Emperor protects? Calming his disquiet with a silent prayer to the Golden Throne, the Storm Trooper waited for the Valkyrie to land and when the alarms went off, signalling to disembark, he felt somewhat more reassured.

Ten Storm Troopers disembarked from the dropship as two more Valkyries dropped off even more men, making them a total of thirty. Spreading out from the loading ramps of the Valkyries and forming a perimeter, the first thing they saw aside from the dead barren land were the many heretic corpses along with two abandoned Rhino transports.

'Looks like someone really did a number on these bastards' comments one of the other Storm Troopers. Chaos Marines and Cultists in the colors of the Blood God lay dead, their numbers are hard to determine for many had been blown to gristly pieces.

'Secure the objective' ordered their squad's sergeant and the Storm Troopers began to form up into a platoon before converging on the bloodstained loading ramp of the Devourer. As they approached, one of the Storm Troopers suddenly collapsed and someone shouted "Sniper!"

'Get to cover!' shouted another and men scrambled to get behind either the landed Valkyries or the Rhinos, the Corporal makes it towards one of the heretic transports which looks like it had been hit at the view port with a melta weapon. Another Storm Trooper goes down with a loud cry of pain, his right thigh explodes outwardly in a shower of blood and bone and the others did not move to assist their fallen comrade. They all knew this tactic well, to use an injured ally as bait to draw out the others.

One of the sergeants quickly granted the Emperor's Mercy to the wounded man with a bolt round to the chest. It was a cold and ruthless thing to do but a necessary one to spare the wounded man anymore suffering and avoid unnecessarily risking the lives of the others.

'Did anyone see where the shot came from!?' called one of the others over the vox.

'Negative!' shouted another and other similar reports came in.

'Taking fire from the Lander!' called one of the Valkyrie pilots over the vox as bright bolts of energy strike the cockpit which thankfully holds and the eyes of the Storm Troopers are turned towards the loading ramp of the Devourer which would normally be used for tanks. A single lone red and white armored figure, a Tau stands at the top of the ramp, firing a salvo of energy rounds as soon as one of the Storm Troopers returns fire, it flees into the ship.

'Get that xenos!' shouted one of the officers. 'Throw some smokes!'

Smoke grenades were then hurled in the direction of the loading ramp, the Storm Troopers waited for the clouds of gas to obscure the path towards the vessel and once it had been sufficiently, covered, they sprinted ahead en masse. More grenades were hurled, creating more smoke clouds but as they ran, another trooper screamed in pain. Keeping his mind focused on the mission, the Corporal and his squad reached the mouth of the Devourer ship where before them were countless stacked cargo crates.

A series of bright bolts of energy then flies from behind one of the crates as the alien emerged and fired a few shots that nearly hits some of the other Storm Troopers and the men quickly advance in a search and destroy formation. Three men were ahead of the Corporal as they proceeded to where the alien had been spotted, they had all split into fire teams of four and they hunted for the xeno.

Tense moments passed as the Corporal held his lascarbine up; the red right eye lens of his helmet looked down his gun's iron sight. Step by step, he squinted left and right, searching for any traps or other aliens. The many stacked crates formed an almost labyrinthine terrain which uncomfortably reminded him of the claustrophobic environment of a Space Hulk.

It was also not comforting to see many torn up bodies as well, many of which were either part of the ship's crew or were cargo-lifting servitors. A few heretic corpses could also be found but these were outnumbered by the dead on their side. He then heard a humming sound to his right, swiftly turning his gun to face it, he saw the trailing of white cloth pass by which was immediately followed by the crack of laser weapons.

'Contact! Contact!' one of the others shouted. 'It's moving too fast, can't get a bead on it!'

Quickening his pace, the Corporal followed the sound of gunfire and he then heard another humming from above. Looking up, he saw something red zip by and before he could squeeze the trigger on his carbine, it was gone. More cracks ring out nearby, the vox becomes a buzz of reports, another of their comrades has been killed and still the xenos evade them.

One of the Storm Troopers ahead of him suddenly halts; he immediately turns around and shouts 'IT'S A TRA-'

The next thing the Corporal knew, there was a blinding flash of light that seared his retinas even behind the lenses of his gas mask. Loudly shouting a curse, he could not see a damned thing! Briefly, he heard a sound, a muffled whisper from behind which was immediately then followed by a loud series of _pa-kow! pa-kow!_

He only felt the quickest of hot, searing pain before everything became black and cold. Corporal Childress did not feel it when he struck the deck nor did he hear the screams of his squad as they were mercilessly cut down.

* * *

 _Steady as Earth_ mentally recited Shas'nel T'au Sheia as she held on to her Pulse Blaster.

 _Fluid like Water_ she continues as she raises her gun, the barrel pointed to the back of the human in front of her.

 _Whisper like Air_ she adds as her hooves make not a sound upon the deck and she holds her breath.

On the HUD of her helmet, Sheia sees a small circular map made by her two active Drones. The marked traps left behind by Ellarian are transformed from neutral yellow rings to active red ones which instantly disappear upon detonation. The squad of humans she shadows are caught in a blinding flash of light, they curse and shout in vain as the Blacksun Filter attached to her helmet renders the brilliant explosion into a harsh glare as if briefly looking directly at a sun and merely leaving a dark after image which goes away after a few heartbeats. Her focus remained on the humans and she audibly whispers with lips parting beneath her helmet.

' _Burn like Fire_ ' she finishes as her gloved finger squeezes the trigger which releases a fully automatic spray of pulse rounds from the barrel of her gun.

The back of the Imperial in front of her briefly lights up with a ghostly light before the energy rounds strike, more human blood spatters her already gore-smeared crimson and white armor, she feels the recoil as a second, third and fourth _gue'la_ dies before she even depletes her current ammunition magazine. An orange navigational pointer appears on her HUD, directing her to another squad of humans, their position was around another spot where Ellarian had left a trap which suddenly then disappears.

The maze of cargo crates with its highly stacked containers, narrow corridors and haphazard settings would have been a perfect environment for the Sheia if she had brought an XV-15 Stealthsuit but her reinforced Combat armor served well enough. She soon comes upon a blinded human who stumbles into a gap between some crates, the _Gue'la_ is oblivious to her presence and she kills the Imperial without a second thought. The human dies in a flailing tangle of limbs as she leaps over the body and as soon as she get past the gap and into another corridor, she swivels her gun to the right and opens fire.

An Imperial's head explodes in a shower of meat, bone and pieces of his helmet as the close ranged volley of energy rounds strikes true. Another loses his right arm as bloody craters are dug into his armored chest. The last does not even have time to lift his gun towards her before the Fireblade sends him to their precious Emperor.

For a moment, Sheia stands among the dead; she takes in the slaughter and exults in it. The _Mont'au_ rage within her heart burns, her blood pumps hot as adrenaline courses through her limbs as she embraces it like a lover. She feels truly alive amidst such death, surrounded by the corpses of foes slain by her guns.

Sheia had learned a long time ago that the duty of the Fire Warrior was to hunt, to kill, to mercilessly crush the enemies of the _Tau'va_ for it was through strength that their superiority was proven. Even among the Farsight Enclave, the flames of war burned hot, stoked by the examples and deeds of O'Shovah and his Eight. But a fire that burned must be controlled, to be tempered lest it consumes itself and those around it.

 _No expansion without equilibrium_

 _No conquest without control_

 _Pursue success in serenity_

The teachings of O'Shiur flow once more into her thoughts again, focusing her will, transforming the burning rage into a cold fury. A warning symbol appears on her HUD, a human is behind her and she swiftly turns around. Sheia sees a human officer wielding a bolt pistol and power sword, the latter is raised high and wreathed with cerulean energy, his movements are greatly slowed as he is caught in the Gravity Inhibitor Drone's wave.

"The Alien is not intrinsically evil" the hero O'Mau'tel had once naively said. "Do not hate him. Pity him his ignorance."

Pressing the trigger of Pulse Blaster again, Sheia showed her pity to the ignorant alien before her. The human collapsed in a bloody heap, three other humans behind him immediately open fire with a volley of laser bolts and the Fireblade takes one in the right pauldron which feels like she had been hit with a sledgehammer. Gritting her teeth beneath her helmet, the Fireblade sees a bright flash of light as her Shield drone timely intercepts the volley of lasers, guarding the Tau who rushes towards them.

'Fire in the hole!' shouts a _Gue'la_ who hurls a grenade, the shield drone moves to intercept it and the device explodes on the shield in a bright flash of blinding light.

Chuckling with contempt as her Blacksun Filter was still active; Sheia got close enough to blast a human in the chest and instantly killing it. The remaining two Imperials opened fire, Sheia uses her momentum to tackle the body of her latest kill and using the corpse as a makeshift shield with her left shoulder holding up the corpse. The body jerks as laser bolts strike its back, an arm is snapped off as red beam hits the dark blue fatigues covering the dead human's tricep and as she suspected, they were not armed with Hot-shot laser rifles.

Lifting up her pulse blaster, she fires another spray of energy rounds that paints the wall of a cargo crate with red and the last human charges at her with a roaring chain-bladed knife held in one hand. Shoving her corpse shield towards the attacking human's path, her attacker's path is fouled as he takes a step back and the momentary hesitation is all the Tau needs. Her pulse blaster takes yet another life, another fanatic sent to the grave, one less enemy to worry about.

'Sheia? What is your status?' comms the smooth, melodious of Ellarian.

'I am alive' replies the Fireblade as she reloads. 'Is everything ready up there?'

'All set' replies Ellarian with a tone of satisfaction. 'Everything has been prepared for our visitors and I have called in assistance.'

'What sort of assistance?' asks Sheia with curiosity.

'The kind that will allow us to get this vessel back to camp' answers Ellarian.

'Confirmed, I will be on my way up now' says the Fireblade who cuts the feeds and she begins heading towards the nearest of stair cases.

Tapping on the keys of her wrist console again, Sheia sent her drones orders to head tocontinue distracting the humans before heading to the upper deck and another nav-pointer appears on her HUD. There was a staircase a few _tor'leks_ away but due to the maze of stacked crates, finding a way there might take time. On the mini-map of her HUD, a bright yellow line appears, an optimized route for her to take, courtesy of the AI drones that followed her.

Hefting her bloodied pulse blaster again, Sheia began sprinting through the narrow confines of the cargo bay, her hooves now lightly tapped upon the deck as the _Gue'la_ tried to shoot down her drones. She mused that had she brought gun drones armed with twin pulse carbines, she could have done some serious damage but where was the fun in that? The Fireblade preferred to use drones with either utility or support systems, leaving her to do the actual killing and the only times she took armed ones was on those occasions where she would need to use a drone controller to direct swarms of the constructs.

Red dots appeared on her mini-map, another group of humans are close by but nowhere near one of Ellarian's traps. A blue dot designating her shield drone flies over the _gue'la_ , their laser bolts slam against the already weakened defensive shield which still holds and the humans move to pursue it, away from Sheia. It saves ammo at least but she would have preferred to deal with the Imperials sooner rather than later.

Continuing to follow the path to the staircase, she slips through a gap between some crates and she sees the skeletal metal flight of steps leading up. A red laser bolt suddenly flies past her helmet, leaving a black scorch mark and she glances back to see an approaching group of humans and she climbs. Quickly ascending the steps, Sheia barely evaded the hail of laser fire which sears the metal of the staircase which was large enough to accommodate a dozen humans at a time.

New information suddenly begins streaming into her helmet, the HUD of her visor tracks the locations of more traps left by Ellarian. The Eldar pirate's position is now marked by a new nav-pointer and when she turns to look towards his direction, his form is highlighted by a green box with a distance counter beneath it. There are a significantly lesser number of cargo containers on the upper deck, many of which were smaller in size with the biggest ones reaching up to her waist but she sees far more bodies of both Imperial and Chaos humans scattered around.

Guessing that this had been where most of the fighting had taken place before both Ellarian and she came, the Fireblade quickly heads towards the Eldar's position. Sheia does not actually see Ellarian for the alien pirate's outline is blurred by a protective holo-field; her helmet's sensors also pick up multiple other energy signatures synonymous with Eldar holographic technology. A slight grin creases beneath her helmet as a message from the Gravity Inhibitor Drone appears, informing her that the humans were now ascending the stairways.

The _gue'la_ had taken the bait; the time of _Kauyon_ , the Patien Hunter had passed. It was now time to deliver _Mont'ka_ , the Killing Blow...

* * *

'Do what you do best men!' bellowed Sergeant Montresor as he pointed as glowing powered sabre towards the staircase and his squad advanced towards one of the staircases which led up to troop deck.

Fury burned within the heart of the Storm Trooper Sergeant for they had just lost a lot of good men to the damned xenos. He was rather surprised when he heard the vox reports about there being a Tau for they certainly were nowhere near the blasphemous xeno empire. He had heard stories about how these particularly devious aliens had somehow been spotted all the way in the Koronus Expanse, within Segmentum Obscurus and if he had to guess, there was someone aiding them in getting around across the galaxy and in this particular campaign, the Eldar pirates seemed the most likely culprits.

Whatever was the case, the Sergeant owed it to the dead that they should be avenged! The Storm Troopers had begun to now move more cautiously for after the fiasco at the lower deck, they could ill afford more losses. He and the others still had no idea just about how many aliens were on the ship and judging by the many dead heretics outside, there were probably either a lot of them or the xenos were packing some serious firepower.

Taking point with sword and pistol in hand, he came to the bottom of the stairway's steps and he carefully to the upper deck. Keeping an eye open for more traps such as mines, trip or laser wires, he was rather aware that he had not the necessary equipment to spot just any sophisticated devices and was resigned to have faith in the God Emperor's protection. When he reached the upper deck, the first thing he saw was a charnel scene like that of too many battlefields across the galaxy.

The upper deck which would normally contain many seats for soldiers to use during landings were gone and instead there were more stacked crates and far more corpses than he would have liked to see. Torn up human bodies wearing the uniforms of Navy armsmen and ratings were left around as if they were nothing more than discarded chunks of meat from a mad butcher's shop, there were more dead crimson and brass armoured heretics could be found, all dead cultists or traitor guardsmen but no slain Chaos Space Marines. Among the dead navy personnel, the Storm Trooper sergeant saw many were equipped with shotguns and auto weapons, none of which would have been particularly effective against power armored enemies.

As more surviving fire teams of Storm Troopers reached at the upper deck, they carefully fanned out in search of the enemy. Another moment of tense silence passed as they watched out for more traps, the bodies of the dead could conceal any number of hidden explosives and there could be xenos hiding in cover behind the crates.

'Get to cover men!' orders the sergeant over the vox and as they begin scrambling to get out of the open a bright red light flare up and begin dancing around in the air.

'Shoot that damn drone!' one of the other Storm Troopers shouts and they unleash a barrage of laser fire upon the automaton. The xeno machines absorbs the laser bolts with an energy shield which infuriates the Sergeant to no end for he had earlier taken several shots at fast moving thing with no success at actually damaging it. It flies and weaves about, evading shots for a time before flying off, away from the effective range of their carbines and towards the ship's cockpit.

'Sweet Emperor!' hissed the sergeant as a distinct possibility came into his mind as he quickly opened the voc channel. 'The xenos might be trying to hijack the ship! To the cockpit! Advance!'

Roaring a prayer to the Emperor in unison, the Storm Troopers left their position and they rushed across the corpse-strewn deck. His suspicions were confirmed as the ship began to rumble and there was a great rumbling of metal as the loading ramps of the ship closed up. Scuttling the ship and blowing it to the hell had crossed his mind but the Inquisitors had been clear that the ship and its had to be safely returned to Imperial hands intact and so, their only option now was to take back control of the vessel.

Swiftly closing the gap between themselves and the opened bulk head leading to the piloting crew's cockpit, the door suddenly seals itself shut and the air began to hum and shimmer. Sharp gunfire suddenly rings out across the troop deck as Eldar grav-platforms appeared out of nowhere and Storm Troopers were immediately cut down by hails of shurikens and laser bolts. More bright flashes of blinding light explode from beneath their feet and sergeant suddenly feels a crushing weight upon him.

The Storm Trooper Sergeant does not have much time to think on their mistake as a bright, armor piercing laser bolt catches him in the throat.

* * *

Moving out from cover with Pulse Carbine in hand, Sheia opened fire upon the _gue'la_ with fully automatic barrage of energy rounds. Near her, Ellarian opens fire with his Sunrifle, their aim is focused on the humans who have not yet triggered the other flash mines left behind by her companion. The kills they score are miniscule in comparison to the grav-platform sentry guns called in by the Eldar pirate; the enigmatic aliens used their own form of artificially intelligent machines which tied closely with their psychic nature and just like the Drones built by the Earth Caste, they were very deadly in combat.

Using overlapping fields of fire, the platform mounted guns fired at the moving humans, cutting down many and those who tried to get to cover again were soon surprised by more mines left behind by Ellarian or would find themselves in the line of sight of another turret. In a matter of seconds, the _Gue'va_ soldiers join the rest of those who had fallen in the fight against the _Gue'mont'sha_ , some moaned and screamed in agony, the survivors would be left to bleed to death. Cruel, lilting laughter then begins to emanate from the cockpit behind them, Sheia cautiously glances over her shoulder to see another Eldar emerge and accompanied by an armed human pirates wielding a heavy solid projectile rifle.

'What a delightful slaughter!' commends a female Eldar Corsair with amusement. 'Such fresh pain and agony is so satisfying be close to!'

Like Ellarian, the other Eldar wore gilded armor with a red eyed midnight black helmet but unlike the Outcast who had hailed from their world-sized ships, this other one wore the distinct bladed apparel of the _Var Sin'da_ or better known by most of the galaxy, the Dark Eldar. The female Eldar is carries a brace of many pistols, most of which are the poisoned Splinter Weapons of the _Var Sin'da_ but Sheia also notes some heavier ones which would prove extremely effective against tanks or even Terminator armored Space Marines. The human who accompanied the _Var Sin'da_ female was like most human pirates, dressed in a manner of clothing suspiciously similar to that worn by Ork Freebooters and there were times like this when the Tau Firblade wondered if there was some distant connection between the _Gue'la_ and the _Be'gel_ for she had noticed that both species seemed to suspiciously have many technologies that were very similar to one another and even their sense of clothing was distinctively alike.

'I am pleased that we could provide you such a feast' nods Ellarian with a hint of reservation in his voice for he had more reason to be wary of the _Var Sin'da_ , even to those who were also members of the Crescent Wing Corsair clan. 'Shall we go now?'

'Rather hasty aren't you?' giggled the female Eldar Corsair who then lifted up her right palm and on it was a small box of brass and sharp sigils. 'A deal is a deal' she then says before closing her fist around the box and giving it a squeeze and she opens her hand again to reveal the strange device opening up to shoot out threads of dusty lavender light which began to latch on to many things, themselves includes.

'How long do we have before the whole ship is consumed?' asked Ellarian.

'When I wish it' mockingly answers the Eldar female who touches the small box and in a matter of seconds, several of the crates are wrapped in cocoons of lights. Ellarian nods and again from his belt, he removes a small, pyramid shaped device which would open a portal towards the Eldar Webway. Giving the small box device Sheia had know come to know as a Fractal Web, time to engulf the ship, she could imagine those threads of light wrapping around the entirety of the vessel.

Over the course of her, _Vash'yatol_ , her "Walk between the Spheres", Shas'nel T'au Sheia had learned a great deal of many things about the universe which she doubted that the Tau of either the Enclaves or the Greater Empire could ever hope to fully understand. There were many species like the Eldar, the Necrons and both Humans and Orks who could achieve feats of technology that would beggar the belief of the brightest Earth Caste scientists, there were things hidden beneath the surfaces of countless worlds both horrifying and fantastic. Of all the terrible things she had learned in her travels was that their universe was not entirely one that could be explained by the scientific for there were things such as those that dwelt within the _Vash'Aun'an_ , the Warp and the powers that could be wielded by those attuned to it.

As ridiculous as it would have sounded, especially to a much younger Sheia, the Fireblade had come to learn and accept that theirs was a universe where the supernatural, where gods and magic truly existed and that there were many species both living and dead which blended the arts of science and sorcery. Waiting for the threads of light to engulf more of the vessel, Sheia and the aliens she accompanied soon traveled again into the Eldar Webway, in time for Fractal Web to complete its work. The rare Dark Eldar device would transport all inorganic material aboard the ship safely away to who knows where and Sheia took some small comfort in the fact that they had successfully stuck yet another thorn in the Imperium's side.

Inside the twisting paths of the Webway, Shas'nel Tau Sheia was fully aware that there was still far more work to be done on this barren nameless world. There would be more enemies to fight, more battles to be won and greater acts of destruction to be wrought which suited her just fine. Within her heart, the Fireblade was as always, more than eager to get back out into the field for it was in battle that she found her place, her niche in the machine.

And so she traveled again on a path that she was born and would die treading upon. The _Shas'va_ , the Path of Fire, and it was one she was more than happy to leave a trail of burning ashes in her wake, that and a great pyre of the dead that would be seen all the way from distant T'au itself.

* * *

 **Author's Note: If you are unsure about of some of the things in these stories, I would recommend looking up the novels/stories, Fire Warrior, Fire & Ice, The Kauyon, Aun'shi, Commander Shadow, Tantalus and other pieces of Black Library material as well as the various RPGs from Fantasy Flight Games. Next chapter will be all Mass Effect related and I am open to any suggested readings from the expanded universe outside of the main trilogy and the Paragon Lost film.**


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